What to Wear

Everyone has done it at some point or another. Even guys have done it , they just won't admit to it. But every single church goer has stood in front of their closet looking at the endless sea of clothes and wondered, "I don't have anything to wear.....what am I going to wear to church." I sadly admit that this has been me too many times to count. It's a sad commentary on who I am when I have a more than a dozen outfits to choose from and there are people all over the world who have little, if any, to clothe their own body daily. And I am worried about what to wear to Church? The one place where we should be able to go as we are...no matter what we look like, or what we have done should be the church. But every Sunday at almost every church (at least in Southern California) people come in their Sunday's Best. Everyone is dressed up wearing their nice clothes. Everywhere you look you'll see women with pretty dresses and blouses enhanced with pretty sparkly jewelry paired with matching bejeweled sandals. The men of course will be in their slacks, shirts and tie. Those who claim to dress down will still be dressed up. Some churches that you go to people say, "oh, it's so casual here...everyone wears flip flops." But those are the same people wearing their designer surfer shirt and Roxy sundress.

So what gives? Who started this lame idea that we had to wear our Sunday best? I argue with my husband about this sometimes because ever since we came to our church, he seems to care a lot more about what he wears on Sundays than in the past. (he still is a simple guy with a few pieces of 'acceptable' but not brand name church clothes- but rather than wear what he wants....he dons the tie). I have heard so many times int he church, that we should come to God with our best.....but is that really what God said? Is there somewhere in the bible that Jesus proclaimed, "Come to me all you who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest, but make sure you put your bonnet on before you come to my house."
Absolutely not! God wants us as we are...where ever we are. He knows how we feel. We feel like coming in a ripped tshirt and jeans, we should come in a ripped t-shirt and jeans rather than faking it and dressing ourselves up. I know sometimes we dress up because we want to feel good about ourselves. We know that if we wear that new outfit or that one shirt that matches our eyes we will get a compliment from someone and an ego boost. But do our egos really need more boosting as we walk into worship God?

At my church we have an emerging Worship service, and I love it. I go every Sunday and barely attend the regular worship in the sanctuary. Most of the time i wear what I want. You will rarely ever find me in a dress with matching jewelry and heels. IN fact, you will never see me in heels, I don't believe in them (accept on my wedding day when I wore 3 in. heels so I would be closer to my 6'8" hubby) Instead I put on my favorite and most comfy jeans with a shirt and flip flops. I even come to church with my hair wet and sometimes with no make-up on. Yes, there are times when I wear a skirt, but it's for coziness....not fashion. It's all about comfort for me. But the other Sunday, worship had started and one of the high schoolers walked in and stood in front of me. She was wearing her pajamas. Yep, her cute pajama boxers and pj shirt. Sadly my first conditioned reaction was "what the? I can't believe she is wearing her pj's to church!!!!!!" Then as my mind began to settle I heard myself saying, "Good for her, she's being true to herself and to God." Who cares she wore pj's? She was there before God singing and being a part of the church family.

So the next time you stand before your sea of clothes, think twice and maybe if you feel like it, wear Pajamas. God doesn't care what we wear, but who we are to Him.