I'm a man, i swear.... & possibly a Pharisee

I'm a man, I swear but there are many things that I notice on a daily basis.  Actually I pay attention and notice everything.  I notice the details.  Many people say that's the opposite of the man "who thinks in boxes, and  are also known as waffles"  I sometimes, probably more often than not think like a woman.  There are thousands of small things that I process continuously, and are stored like RAM (random accesses memory) in my head.  (For all you computer geeks, I realized that I'm using RAM in the wrong context so quit bad mouthing me)

One of the things I notice and pay attention to is fashion, I always have, maybe it's because I grew up with 2 women all my life, and maybe it's because I never wanted to dress like my father.

 

I notice what people wear, when they wear it and how they wear it.   I notice when people get new clothes that are around me. I notice the trends, who sets them and who rebells against them.

Here's a list that I kept in my head over the past 6 or 8 months that seems to be hot in the fashion world:  This has a point I promise, just keep reading.

Women:

Skinny Jeans

Ballet Shoes (Flats)

Jeans and High Heels

Tights worn under dresses and skirts

The old school ring that stretches across two fingers that LL Cool J use to wear.

The Color White

UGG Boots with tights worn as pants.

Bright colored dress pants.

Linen Dress. (Not for sure if Linen is the correct fabric, they are the ones the girls wear on the Hills.)

Pregnant Shirts  (not maternity shirts that are for pregnant women, but ones that have a lose flowing bottom) 

Seersucker, or articles of clothing that look similar 

Men:

Beards

Dark Thick Rimmed Glasses.  

The Skinny Tie

Not fastening the top bottom on your dress shirt when wearing a tie. (It says I'm trying to be professional but not to uptight. ) one of my favorites

Chuck Taylors seem to be making a comeback.

Casual shoes with a suit

Driving Loafers without socks

Slip Ons

Argyle

The sweater vest when worn correctly.

multi patterned suits, shirts and ties all worn together.

vector patterns on t-shirts.

V-Neck T-shirts

The Old School Bomber Jacket look

Seersucker 

Big Belt Buckles

Vests with T-shirts and wrist bands if you are artsy or in a band.

Jeans and untucked dress shirts  (Especially true if you pastor a mega church these days)

Things that are dying out:

Pleats... Finally, even though they are still the dominant dress pant.

The Front Tuck.. not as popular as it use to be.  (I still do it)

The Soul Patch unless you are a worship leader at our church.

Gold jewelry

It's funny what people do to look good.  I'm no exception, I lay out my clothes the night before to prepare. I think about weather, what I've worn in recent days, who my target audience is, the look I'm trying to pull off, and of course, where I'm going.  I have this rule where I try not to where the same shirt twice in a month. Ridiculous I know, like anyone else cares what I wear.

Speaking of Looking Good, our softball team really looks good.  Our jerseys are far superior in design than any other team hands down.  I mean, we look good!! People notice when we walk on the scene...

The problem is we stink!!!!  We are bad, we don't care, we are uncommitted, and for most of us, it doesn't really bother us when we lose.   

We play softball like many of us follow Jesus.  We put on this really good show, we act like we've got it all together, we look good on the outside, but it's our souls that scream a different story.  We are uncommitted, we don't care when we don't feel him working in our lives, we don't pray, love our neighbors, or read our bibles.  But, we look good in front of others, and we've got the religion thing down!

Many of us have become the Pharisees. . .I'm excited today after working with Steve on his message about what Sunday is going to unfold in our congregation.  I can't give it away but here's a sneak peek.