Thinking About Jesus

My daughter is home from college for winter break, which means I’ve been watching way more episodes of What Not to Wear than I would ever watch on my own. This is the reality show on TLC in which notoriously unfashionable women are nominated by their friends to undergo a wardrobe makeover with the help of self-proclaimed experts Stacy and Clinton.

The more I watch this show, the more I wonder about what Jesus thinks of this premise. I doubt Jesus is cool with investing $5,000 on clothes and shoes in a single week. He probably doesn’t care whether women “feel beautiful” or adequately accentuate their hourglass shape. I bet he’s listening, though, to the part where you learn that clothing for many women is a barometer of what’s going on inside emotionally. I don’t want to generalize too broadly, but for some women appearing on this show their clothing choices are saying things like:

• “I really hate the way my body looks since I gained weight. I’m so ashamed.”
• “My life isn’t good right now, so I like to fantasize that I’m someone else living in another time and place.”
• “I caught my boyfriend with another woman once, so I’m never again going to let a man lose interest in me.”
• “I don’t deserve to look good.”
• “This is the only way I can get a man to look at me.”
• “A man has violated my body and I don’t want to attract any male attention to myself at all.”
• “Since I had kids, all I do is give, and I have no time to think about myself.”

Stacy and Clinton, after some honest talk about what the women have been wearing and why, address those negative beliefs by speaking positive mantras—often true but incomplete. It’s not surprising that they don’t talk about God’s love, since this is a secular TV show.

However, Jesus’ love is what these women most need, and this show has altered my attitude toward some of the females I run across in my own life, especially those wearing shapeless, drab, hopelessly out-of-style, unattractively tight, or embarrassingly revealing outfits.

I am convicted that “what not to wear” when I see a woman in an unstylish outfit is definitely a disapproving frown or a turned up nose. I need to stop more often and wonder about what Jesus sees in her heart. I should think, “What might she be telling me through the clothes she pulls out of her closet each morning? Does she need a friend, a listening ear, unconditional love, a gentle Savior?”

Most certainly she needs someone to notice and care. At the very least, I am going to try always to be wearing an encouraging smile when I look her way. And I will try to be listening for when God wants me to stop what I’m doing and help more women with the inner makeover that can truly set them free.