What Are You Wearing?

I was one of the older students when I was in graduate school. I was a good ten years older than most of my master's degree peers, and probably about fifteen years older than the undergrads. On one particular day I was on my way to class and noticed that students were looking at me differently. They were friendlier than normal and more talkative. Music students are nice people in general, so I didn't give it too much thought. But it kept happening even outside of the music building. I walked to the campus cafeteria for lunch and students would look at me, smile, and say hello. It was weird. Then it hit me - I had come from some event to which I had worn a coat and tie. The picture was now clear. I was older and wearing a coat and tie. The students thought I was a faculty member, and they were being nice in the event that it might boost their GPA or something.

We may not think about it all the time, but the clothes we wear say a lot about us and actually do a lot more than provide protection from the elements. I notice a difference in how I carry myself when I really dress up for an event. I'm a little more serious and probably more productive when I wear a tie to work than when I wear jeans and a sweatshirt. I've had complete strangers begin conversations with me simply because we're both wearing our team colors. My wife's grandmother once refused to make a second appointment with a doctor because he wore sneakers. In her mind doctors were supposed to wear "hard shoes". Because of his shoes she didn't trust that he took himself seriously as a professional, therefore he might not take her seriously.

I was recently reading Paul's epistle to the Colossians, and noticed the passage in which he encourages them to "clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience" (Col. 3:12). He goes on to use another clothing reference, and in Ephesians he uses the "whole armor of God" metaphor. He really liked the clothing motif. But it makes sense. If our physical clothing works to represent who we are on the inside, why shouldn't our inner and spiritual clothing do the same? If people see kindness, compassion, and patience, they will know that those actions reflect who we are on the inside. And here's the cool thing: just as wearing a suit and tie make me carry myself differently, so will wearing the "clothes" of kindness and compassion. What we exhibit will become what we are. And often, people will respond in kind. It's a beautiful loop that feeds everyone. Unfortunately, if we wear shabby clothes like anger, bitterness, envy, and selfishness, people notice those clothes as well. We won't necessarily receive those things back. We'll receive something worse - complete dismissal and isolation.

So it does us all well to think about the clothes we're sharing with the world. Let's all commit together to dress in our finest - our best acts of kindness, silence when we want to ridicule or blast someone, compassion for everyone, even those people we don't really like. It does everyone good when we make sure we go into the world wearing our very best.