
This Sunday we get to join in with the Edgbaston Cricket Ground funday and the 100 or so volunteers from Oasis will be wearing our loudest ever (colour wise) t-shirts to identify ourselves within the crowds. However, seeing the t-shirts reminded me of the impact wearing the Oasis t-shirt had on me last year at the funday as I wore it to, from and at the fun day.
But it’s just a T-shirt, right?
As I wore the T-shirt blazened with Oasis church, I found that I was noticeable and that I stood out as someone who was representing Oasis church and therefore the one the church is all about, God…there was no hiding!
I found myself thinking more about how I was acting and speaking not beacuse I had to but because I wanted to give people a postive experience of church and therefore God who I was representing. The problem was as I thought more about the impact of wearing the t-shirt was having I was left with this uncomfortable question…
…do I always act and speak the same with others when I am not wearing the t-shirt?
You see wearing the T-shirt revealed an identity I wanted to live up to but when I don’t wear the t-shirt do I still?
The unfortunate answer was as I thought about it I realised the answer was no, I don’t always.
Therefore since last year I have given myself to living sub-consciously as though I am wearing an Oasis t-shirt that reveals my identity as a follower of Jesus part of His church and the freedom, hope, love, joy and life that that brings…it has made the world of difference in my every day existence in the way I speak and act towards others.
That’s me but how about you?
Sub-consciously we can wear t-shirts that are labeled in so many ways how about discovering afresh or for the first time wearing one that causes you to live from a place of freedom, hope, love, joy and life?
I hope you enjoy wearing orange.
But it’s just a t-shirt, isn’t it?