Good Tiger 🐯

New York Fashion Week 2017. Who doesn’t love beautiful clothes, gorgeous models, famous celebrities, flashing paparazzi, fashion magazines and street-style bloggers all in one place? (I could name quite a few of you so keep reading!)

I’m not sure how much you understand about the clothes you’re wearing right now or how you came to like them. So here’s a little background.

fullsizeoutput_21c9 — The incomparable Donatella.

Each year, there are major fashion shows all over the world in early spring and fall. Top designers create and exhibit the trends that eventually come down the pipe to you and me. When we talk about a few of the top names THINK: Karl Lagerfeld of Chanel and FENDI, Alessandro Michele of GUCCI, and Donatella Versace, the matriarch of the iconic Italian fashion house by the same name.

NYC, Paris, and Milan are the best-known shows. It’s where you saw Naomi Campbell fall off her platform shoes on the catwalk back in the early nineties.

You love elaborate embroidery and sequins on the clothes at Target? Thank GUCCI, 2015. Those giant shoulder pads and overdone patterns that you will be wearing in a year or two at Banana Republic and J. Crew? Grazie, Versace.

The trends we are seeing today for fall were shown in February, 2017. If you love the “power red” you’re seeing in boots and accessories, hoodies-under-blazers and naked ankles with rolled pants in menswear, the vintage throwback in fur, 70’s plaid, Victorian collars and retro hats, or the spectacular Gliteratti boots, creative directors designed and dressed the models on the runways all the way back in late winter/early spring for your wearing pleasure in fall.

As I was verbally processing this post over lunch with my BFF, H, she reminded me of a great scene in The Devil Wears Prada where Meryl Streep’s character, Miranda Priestly, is schooling Andrea (Anne Hathaway) on a certain cerulean blue sweater. You simply MUST watch the clip HERE.

(BTW, does anyone have that movie for me to borrow this weekend? Oh, wait, NVMD. H just dropped it off for me to enjoy tonight!)

This begs the question: why is The Church Girl writing about something so trivial and temporal? I thought she was supposed be super-spiritual and I am supposed to see “Jesus in Everything” here. What a rip off! I’m not following this blog anymore…

(Alright, alright, I’m making assumptions about what you’re thinking right now. Just hold on until the end.)

Can we love our High Priest and haute couture?

Are chickens, Christ and Christian Dior mutually exclusive or is there a place for all of them inside of a Jesus follower’s walk?

fullsizeoutput_21c3 — #hateful #grouchomarx

Can I be frustrated about the small things in life, like my WunderBrow product being hateful and making me look like Groucho Marx, the knowledge that we are out of half-and-half for my morning cup of joe, or my clothes fitting tight because I’ve gained weight (could it be the half-and-half or am I just slipping into middle age?), while at the same time being concerned about the big ones like racial inequality and riots in St. Louis, the threat of nuclear war with North Korea, the state of the World Church, or wondering if my children know and love Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior?

Can we be deep and, in the same breath, shallow, yet always pointing people to the Lord?

Sometimes I wonder if PEOPLE wonder about things I am writing and giving that

raised-eyebrow

judge-y

hmmmm, mmm

eye-rolling

SIDE GLANCE

at The Church Girl.

(Wait, did I just think your thoughts for you AGAIN in that paragraph? Were they true or false? Honestly, it doesn’t matter. I have no right to assume anything until you actually give me feedback, right? Only God can judge what’s in the heart of a man. (1 Corinthians 4:5) If I do, that’s called Co-Dependency and there’s Celebrate Recovery for that…)

Alright. Easy, Trigger. Let’s all take a deep breath and a long slurp of coffee; it’s time for a familiar story slanted for #nyfw2017.

fullsizeoutput_21c5 — “Bad Tiger” 2017 Angry Cat GG Wallet

There is a grandfather who is sitting with his grandchild around the campfire. He tells the child there are two tigers fighting inside of every man; they are always at war.

One is evil, representing greed, hate and fear. One is good, representing love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.

The child considers his elder’s words thoughtfully and asks the simple question: “Which one wins?”

“The one you feed.”

fullsizeoutput_21c6 — “Good Tiger” a 1970’s vintage GUCCI scarf

My Tigers have names. My Good Tiger is called “The Holy Spirit.” The Bad Tiger is named “My Flesh/The World/The Devil.”

Every day, I want desperately for the Good Tiger to win, not just in myself, but in those around me or in my spheres of influence—Christian or not. And sometimes, that means talking about the fact of my false eyelashes failing me, or me failing my Father and King.

Whatever I can do to possibly reach someone for Jesus or allow them to see Him in me and question what they believe about God—I’m willing to go there.

In this world, there are lots of things we do and say and places we point people’s attention because of our Tigers. These things can be distracting or helpful to glorifying God on our Christian journey.

We have a-million-and-one thoughts running through our minds in any given minute. It’s food for the Tigers, Friend. But it’s the way we chose to view them, how we take those thoughts captive, and which bowl we fill with them that creates who we are to those around us.

When it comes to fashion or faith, ministry or menswear, I just want to feed my Good Tiger—the Holy Spirit. I want to unreservedly LOVE people better. And when I do that, it might just make someone’s day just a little bit brighter, a little bit happier, a little bit more holy–online or in-person. And it might just point them to Jesus.

“For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of this world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought and make it obedient to Christ.” (2 Corinthians 10:3-5)

Feed the Good Tiger.

Jesus in Everything.

And just in case you were still with me and interested in seeing some of the best trends for clothes and hair for 2017, click HERE and HERE. 😉