Clothes Make the Christian

Our youngest daughter Carley and her husband Collin just left our house for their new digs in Phoenix.

Arizona.

That’s a long, long way from Midland.

The move is the headline in Collin’s recent promotion with CBS Sports and their 24/7 streaming service. Instead of being headquartered in Dallas and covering college sports and recruiting from Norman to Austin up and down I-35, he’s now part of a team covering almost a third of the country from Arizona and Utah west to Southern California to Washington State. It’s a tremendous opportunity for Collin in a brutally competitive industry–I completely understand–and we’re absolutely thrilled for them both.

Still, obviously, there’s some sadness mixed in. We’re going to see these two much less often now. How do we get one of those credit cards that gives us Southwest Airlines miles?

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In other Stanglin family news, Elliott took his first steps at 6:45 Tuesday evening. At 55 weeks old, our first-born grandson (by 45 seconds) has flipped the switch and doesn’t crawl anymore! If history is an indicator, I’m betting that Sammy watches Elliott bust it for about two weeks, analyzes everything he sees, and then starts walking perfectly, immediately, and never falls. Here’s a video of those first steps:

ElliottFirstSteps

I know! I know! You want to watch it like ten times!

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“As God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience… And over all these virtues, put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.” ~Colossians 3:12-14

You can tell who people are by the clothes they wear. You see a police officer, you know he’s a police officer by the uniform, the badge, and the handcuffs on his belt. You know a nurse by the scrubs she’s wearing, the stethoscope around her neck, and the bags under her eyes. A referee wears a striped shirt, a cowboy wears pointed boots, a chef wears a funny hat, a dad wears cargo shorts and two-toned Asics.

A Christian is recognized by the fashion statements we make, too. When you’re raised with Christ, you wear compassion, kindness, gentleness, patience, and love And people can see it a mile away.

The old clothes, the clothes you wore in the life you once lived, those are inappropriate for the new realities we enjoy in Christ. The new clothes, the new way to behave–that’s what we wear now. And these new clothes signal to people who we are. They identify us as disciples of our Lord Jesus.

Now, some people will criticize these clothes Christians wear as kind of wimpy. Christians are weak-willed pansies who talk about love and peace and let others just walk all over them.

Wait. That’s not true. Christian behavior is decidedly different from worldly behavior, but it’s not for wusses. People who say that don’t know what they’re talking about.

Have you ever seriously tried to forgive someone who did you wrong? That is a very difficult thing to do. It takes determination and commitment and follow-through. It takes a devotion to another person and a loyalty to higher ideals. It takes great courage to forgive. The wimpy thing, the easy thing to do is NOT forgive.

Have you ever tried to be compassionate and patient? It’s not natural. It’s not easy. It takes tremendous discipline. Being a person of peace in the world we’re in takes a massive amount of courage and boldness. And it’s risky. It’s much safer to join in on all the slander and lies and expressions of outrage.

But those are the old clothes. That’s the old wardrobe, before you were raised with Christ. You wear different clothes now. People know by your kindness, gentleness, patience, and love that you live in a different reality and you serve a different King.

Peace,
Allan