Toss Out The Dirty Clothes!… Hello Weekend Readers. I am musing on the latest specs on leftover clothing in 2023. I know this sounds dumb, but the numbers are staggering. In fact, they continue to pile up from one year to another and yet manufacturers keep going with new clothing. It’s a never-ending enterprise that shows over 60% of these manufacturers go bankrupt in less than 10 years. And the most staggering 2023 numbers include you and me: $1.7 trillion globally, and in the USA, it is $358.70 billion. Let’s face it, we like our clothing!

After looking this up, I immediately thought of the Scripture from Ephesians 4:21-24 [Voice], where the Apostle Paul says:

“If you have heard Jesus and have been taught by Him according to the truth that is in Him, then you know to take off your former way of life, your crumpled old self, [those dirty old clothes]—that dark blot of a soul corrupted by deceitful desire and lust— to take a fresh breath and to let God renew your attitude and spirit. Then you are ready to put on your new self, modeled after the very likeness of God: truthful, righteous, and holy.”

So, what should we ‘put on’ in this New Year? Isabella Campolattaro is a wonderful writer for several Christian magazines. She says: “I was raised Catholic but a family that never went to mass except at Easter and Christmas. I’d had a challenging childhood and left home as soon as I could, aiming to start what I thought was a new life. Turns out, it wasn’t as new as I’d hoped. I carried some of the same old, familiar patterns that had made my childhood so difficult. As the saying goes: wherever you go, there you are!

Throughout my twenties, I lived a faithless life—not very righteous or holy. It wasn’t until I was 33 when I really recognized Jesus…and then some things changed promptly. I was empowered to quit drinking, smoking, and reckless dating. Then my selfish ambitions changed and I stepped off the corporate ladder and pursued more meaningful work. Yet, notwithstanding all of that sudden and spontaneous change, old habits, thinking, and ways of being lingered. At the end of year 2022, I decided I needed a “new set of clothes” and not for my body, but for my heart and soul! The words in Ephesians 4 grabbed my mind and my heart. I realized my “new set of clothes” was not a passive thing, like changing my pajamas for the day’s clothing, but it was me needing to remove the corrupt stuff in my life and begin a new holy self.”

Her words were so encouraging to me and I hope they are to you as well. We all have baggage that we hang on to and just can’t let it go. The closet of our “old clothes” gets bigger and bigger and we still go out and get new clothes which, sadly, will hang out with those old clothes for who knows how long?!

I’m not into New Year Resolutions—in fact, I think they tie us down more than release us. I have a friend who loves to make her resolutions and then a few days after New Years she has a party to burn them! Why? She says “it’s fun to make them up but I can’t stand the grief I get because I can’t perfectly follow them!”

She is right, none of us can. Like Isabella, we have to remove the corrupt “clothing”—the stuff that weighs us down and keeps us captive to the world’s view of living. The only way we can accomplish this is being in partnership with Jesus because, only Jesus can give us the strength, guidance, wisdom, grace and the most important—the motivation to make the changes we need.

So, what new ‘clothing’ will you put on this new year? Instead of going to the clothing stores, go to the ‘Store of Galatians’ where you will find who you are and whose you are:  “For you are all children of God through faith in Christ Jesus. And all who have been united with Christ in baptism have put on Christ, like putting on new clothes.”

Now that is the clothing we all need to wear, AMEN!