Righteous Style

I like the way that Pastor Mark explains how to have a healthy perspective of righteousness and riches in this sermon. He explains how individuals can fit into one of four categories: righteous or unrighteous poor, and righteous or unrighteous rich. After reading the sermon notes for this particular topic I found myself making a comparison between wealth and style and how we as believers can fit into the same four categories in our approach to personal style.

Just as some people are blessed with more riches than others, some of us are blessed with more of a sense of style than others. I’ll take that thought one step further … some of us are just more in tune to certain elements of culture than others. And just as we shouldn’t treat the possession or lack of wealth as a “good” or “bad” thing, the issue of fashion shouldn’t be an issue of whether or not as individuals we posses a natural sense of style but instead what we do with what we have been given!

I often find myself envying friends who are familiar with popular music; they can pick just the right song, create an awesome mix for a road trip, and sing along to just about anything. I’m lucky if I can remember the name of a song after I’ve heard it ten times - no joke! Some people know all the latest trends in movies, clothes, technology, and entertainment. Others are great artists or musicians … and some people just have an amazing appreciation for under-appreciated aspects of culture. for example, my best friend has a fascination with graffiti tag artists, especially those who frequent Ballard. Her appreciation for this unique (and admittedly destructive) expression of individuality has opened my soul to seeing culture, art, and style in a whole new light.

The aspect of culture that I engage with the most is fashion. I love to express my mood, change my personality, and communicate through what I wear. I love to study others’ apparel - you can learn a lot about a person by observing how conscious they are of what they wear and how they dress. I truly believe that fashion and appearance are major ways that we communicate, whether or not we want to acknowledge it. And since we all wear clothing, fashionable or not, style is an issue we all deal with; some more aggressively and others more passively. Among the women I know clothing, fashion, and appearance can be a big deal. Some people consider it a faux pas to wear anything but the latest styles, and they spend hours searching for the right clothing and accessories, letting their desire to be put-together and fashionable dictate their free-time and the way they spend their money. Other women prefer to not even think about what clothing they put on, whether it matches, fits, or communicates anything about them other than, “I don’t care what I look like because I’m so spiritual that I can’t be distracted by things so trivial as attractive clothing.”

I would challenge you today to consider how you think about your appearance. Do you think about it a lot? Do you think about it little? Do you spend the majority of your time contemplating how to improve your appearance, wishing you looked differently or like someone else, or coveting clothing or resources that others have and you don’t? Do you feel trapped, wishing you could dress a certain way or buy certain things, but feel guilty because of the misconception that says godly women shouldn’t try to be outwardly beautiful?

I am young and have a lot to learn, but from my short limited experience, I would like to say that I believe God has given us different gifts, different abilities, and different ways to engage our culture. In the same way we can fall into the “Righteous Rich” and “Unrighteous Rich” categories, we can also fall into the categories of “Righteous Style” and “Unrighteous Style.” Rather than just looking at our outward appearance when it comes to fashion and style, we need to look more at our motivations and thoughts surrounding dress and appearance.

I have a few friends for whom dressing well comes so easily it’s basically second nature for them. They are able to shop and dress without much thought and really do enjoy putting together fun outfits. Without obsessing about clothing, how they appear, or what they’re going to wear every day for the next three weeks, they are righteously able to look great out of a pure heart without giving this area of their life more attention than is necessary. For others, having a stylish appearance is of little concern: they neither obsess about it nor spend a lot of time thinking about it. They have a sort of “Righteous Non-Style” … they also don’t give an unnecessary amount of thought or attention to their clothing and are able to be content expressing themselves through other creative avenues.

Then there are those of us who fall into the unrighteous categories. I have to admit that I more often than not fall into the “Unrighteous Style” category, although in the last few years God has really delivered me from some of my vanity and shallowness to realize that I need to spend my time, energy, and money for His glory rather than mine. In my weaker moments I can take my obsession with appearance so far as to plan my wardrobe for days or weeks in advance. Without a conscious effort to focus my thoughts on things above my mind wanders to thinking of shoes, shirts, dresses, and this always takes me to a place of discontent. I find I’m much happier when I don’t go clothes shopping. When I see what I can have but I don’t, my heart covets and my relationship with Jesus becomes distant.

So for me having an attitude of “Righteous Style” means that I can dress up, dress down, go shopping, but it all has to be within reason. As soon as I realize that I’m late for church because I am in the midst of my seventh outfit change then I’ve stepped into the realm of Unrighteous Style. I can also go without fashion: some days I dress simply and skip makeup. On those days I really have to then put my appearance out of my mind and remember that I’m fasting from beauty for a while. Otherwise as soon as I feel discontent with the way I look I fall into an attitude of “Unrighteous Non-Style” … looking grungy and feeling discontent.

For me, this will be a life-long learning process: how to dress like a beautiful feminine woman without letting myself spend too much time thinking about what I look like. And how to encourage others to do the same; as women it’s easy to fall into a place of wanting to experience worth and value and others’ love for us ONLY when we feel we deserve it and “look” like we are valuable and lovable. But I would challenge and encourage you to leave this attitude behind and meditate on what it means in your life to have righteous style. Keep reading more on this subject here. And finally, one more great article for women and men alike.