Adage #23: Bring appropriate attire to a cold climate.

Sorry it's been so long since I've posted. If you haven't read my last post, you might want to read that first here.

In my last post I talked about not forgetting where you came from. I love keeping some of my southern California roots while living in the Pacific Northwest, but it has created a lot of problems, too. The following are two of the biggest ones I've run into and have found pretty humbling:

Problem #1: Not owning enough warm clothes.

In the fall of 2003, I packed up all of my clothes, my alphabetized cd collection, a few other important belongings and moved into the dorms of Whitworth University (it was still Whitworth College then). I liked my California style, but I soon learned that the 3 long sleeved shirts and 4 sweatshirts I owned were not going to cut it in the below freezing weather. It took me years to figure out how to dress for cold weather. My first year, someone taught me the new mind-blowing concept of layering my clothes. In California, when it was cold, I would sometimes just wear a sweatshirt to school with no t-shirt underneath because I knew I wouldn't need to take the sweatshirt off. Apparently, that doesn't keep you warm - who knew! I also did not own any boots of any kind, let alone snow boots, until the fifth year I lived in Spokane. I thought boots were ugly and I felt weird wearing such big shoes. I was cold and wet for several years.

Problem #2: Not having practical shoes.

As ugly as I think Chaco sandals and all those other shoes for active people might be, it turns out they are super useful. There are a lot of fun outdoor activities to take part in when you live in the Pacific Northwest, especially in the summer. Many of those you would not want to wear tennis shoes because they would get soaking wet, but flip flops will not do the job. I have an example of a predicament I found myself in a few years ago. Some friends and I decided to go white water rafting in Montana on a beautiful summer day. I am a pretty cautious person, so the idea of white water rafting was a little scary as well as exhilarating. The particular company we decided to go through specifically told us that we could not wear flip flops or tennis shoes. So my friends with their ugly but extremely practical sandals looked totally normal on this trip and I found myself being forced to wear the below pictured, most ridiculous looking "water booties". And just when you thought it couldn't get worse than water shoes...

I'd like to say that I'm above feeling insecure about being the only one of my friends on this trip wearing these shoes, but that would be a lie. I was more than aware of my ugly water booties the whole day. I'm rethinking my stand against ugly, but practical sandals. However, I'm planning on sticking to a strict no-weird-five-fingers-shoe diet. I just can't do it.

"To those not having the law I became like one not having the law (though I am not free from God’s law but am under Christ’s law), so as to win those not having the law. To the weak I became weak, to win the weak. I have become all things to all people so that by all possible means I might save some. I do all this for the sake of the gospel, that I may share in its blessings."//I Corinthians 9:21-23 (TNIV)

Paul was willing to set aside whatever music he preferred, the style of clothes he wore, the local phrases he grew up using in order to reach people with the gospel. Those little things were not of importance in the eternal scheme of things. This has made me think a lot as I get ready to church plant in another community. I will need to have this same mindset - ready to give up more of these superficial things that I hold on to as part of my identity. In the end, God's message is much more important that my refusal to listen to country music.

Is there something superficial in your life you need to let go of for the sake of the gospel?

Adage #22: Don't forget where you came from.

Within the first year of college in eastern Washington I am sure I declared to my friends at least a hundred times that I would move back to California as soon as I could. They like to remind me of this often, particularly because they moved away and I have stayed put in the same town since graduating. I have just recently started answering the question, "Where are you from?" with a "Washington" instead of a "Washington, but I'm really from California."

I guess after 9 years, it's time to admit that I'm not really from California anymore. I am no longer tan in the middle of winter and the first thing I think about when I drive by a house is how difficult getting up the driveway would be in the ice and snow (apparently I talk about this as often as I think about it according to those who spend a lot of time around me). Even though California is no longer my home, there are some Pacific Northwest "traditions" I have refused to take part in with the hope of keeping a little of bit of my Californian blood alive and well.

#1

I refuse to wear socks with sandals. I have never had an issue keeping this up unless is involves maybe running out to the trash can quickly and all I have nearby are flip flops, but I don't really count that as going out into public.


#2

I don't own a single thing that is North Face. This is less of a stand against Northwest fashion, I simply cannot seem to justify spending $150 on a jacket that everyone else in town owns. Instead, I will continue to wear my layers: tank top, long sleeve shirt, sweater, possible sweatshirt (or two) topped of with a pea coat that isn't as warm as it should be with a scarf and at least two pairs of mittens. Never mind that all those layers most likely cost more than that dumb North Face jacket I should just buy.


#3

I have absolutely refused to purchase a pair of Chacos or Tevas. They are ugly and expensive. I pretty much blame all stereotypes I hold to these shoes specifically on the college I went to. People who wear these sandals grew up in Washington or Colorado, they are probably YoungLife leaders, they drive a Subaru, sometimes they have dreads or dress like a hippie and their favorite past times include outdoor activities I've never heard of. These are the same people who wear those tennis shoes that are trying to be sandals and now those shoes with toes that are just weird looking. But let me make a distinction here, I have no problem with the people who own any of these kinds of shoes. Some of my favorite people wear these shoes and I do not think any less of them.


#4

Subarus used to top my list of things I would never own. They are very popular cars up here and for good reason: they are one of the best cars when it comes to navigating in snow. So after I while, I decided if I was going to stay in this town with all of it's snow, I should get a car with 4 wheel drive. And there I was contemplating the purchase of a Subaru. When I first decided I would never own a Subaru, it was because I thought they were ugly, and then it just became a stubborn thought with absolutely no real reason behind it. As I was looking into a car to purchase, it became my first choice - gasp! But don't you worry, I ended up with what I perceive to be an amazing fusion of a California native living in eastern Washington. I bought a Honda Element. It has 4 wheel drive, it's made for camping AND it's a surfer car, tons of Californians who surf own an Element. I have managed to combine my southern California roots with my Pacific Northwest reality. 

In many ways, I try to keep my California roots intact in a much colder climate. I do not want to let go of where I came from. Although many of my reasons are wrong (because many of them are based on pride and vanity), I think there is a biblical reason to not forget where you came from.

Romans 12:2 (The Message) - Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don't become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You'll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you. 

This verse doesn't really apply to my need to pretend that I still live in southern California when I clearly do not, but it does remind me that I'm really a native of God's kingdom. Those roots in my Creator are the ones I have to remember instead of getting caught up in the temporary culture I live in now.

Are you letting the culture you live in change who you are too much or are you letting God's culture be the standard you live by? Are you being dragged down by the temporary world around you or are you being transformed by the eternal Word of God?