Sunday Wear

I was refolding my clothes today since once in a while I get tired of my not exceptionally neat wardrobe and want to feel the pride of having it look like arranged books in the library of an organised-freak of a meticulous professor. Since I’m a fan of putting stuff in categories, I do just that with my clothes too. So I have Sunday wear, and house wear and outside-the-house-but-not-Sunday-wear as my three main categories, and then sub-categories under each. I apologise if I sound like a school research report…oh wow! No wonder I loved to organise our group reports so much…sorry once again, got lost in my grand discovery…so where was I? Ah ha, categorising my clothes...

When I reached Sunday wear, I had three categories: Foreign wear and African wear, with kaba-and-slits and non-kaba-and-slits coming under African wear. To my amusement and pride, I noticed that my African wear took two of the three stacks of Sunday wear. Then I looked down to the shelf that contained the house wear and outside-the-house-but-not-Sunday-wear, and noticed the two combined contained at most 15% African wear. My house wear did not have even three sets of African wear… ok so what was the big deal then? African wear is usually expensive anyway and held in high regard, and usually not even in any knock-about clothes category anywhere. It was a big deal when I compared this scenario to my Christian life, and the Christian lives I saw around me. Then I felt sad… L

I am from Ghana which is in Africa. I wear Sunday clothes only on Sundays when I go to church, or on very special and dressy occasions at church during the week or other such events not necessarily at church, like being taken to a classy restaurant in town.

I wear house clothes at home, or in my room at school and usually don’t even dare to take it out. They are used for chores at home, or just being at home. But they are never really publicly presentable and kinda have the capacity of shaming yourself and/or your family if you are seen walking in town in them because they are usually faded or worn out. They may even be so worn out and heading toward “rag” level depending how often you’ve worn them before. I spend most of my time in the house when I’m not in school and  therefore do most of the things I do at home in my house clothes.

Outside-the-house-but-not-Sunday wear is worn when moving out of the house, but to not so much of a dressy event or for a dressy reason. For example, going to do the shopping, running an errand like going to the bank, or going for a get-together (I usually don’t go to parties, that’s the closest I get), going to a concert, or visiting a friend, going for lectures…I guess you get the picture.

Okay, so get to the point already, you may say (I’m telling myself that now, I didn't think I’d type so much before I got here).  I'm a Ghanaian and wearing African wear readily identifies me with my Ghanaian citizenship (especially since most of my African wear is Ghanaian) and the people of the African continent. Now if I wear my Sunday wear occasionally which has most of my African wear, and my outside-the-house-but-not-Sunday clothes are worn a little more frequently but has way fewer African attire, and my house clothes are worn practically everyday and used to do the things I do on a daily basis, which usually end up being the most important things in my life, then I can conclude that I'm usually not identified as a Ghanaian in most of the important things and most of the time in my life, that is if my only identification as a Ghanaian rested on what I wore.

Now here's the point: I’m a Christian and my life is to depict my Divine Citizenship in heaven and the Royal family to which I belong, the family of God of which Jesus Christ is the firstborn and the standard we all are to follow. 

But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God...

1 Peter  2:9 (NIV)

He [Jesus Christ] is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.

Colossians 1:15 (NIV)

If I were to take the above illustration as an analogous factor to my Christianity, then it means I don't readily come off as a Christian in my day to day affairs. Oh yeah, I do look Christian at church on Sundays, and at very "dressy" occasions of my life when it's so obvious people could be watching and I'm in the spotlight. Is it so obvious I'm a Christian when I'm doing my chores at home... when I'm running an errand for my parents... when I'm in my room at school with my roommates and there are no non-roommates around... when I'm doing the stuff I usually do everyday... go for lectures... at group studies... in the exam hall...? Do I follow the example of Jesus Christ when I'm bargaining the price of goods at the market... watching a movie... on Facebook... sitting by the labourer with the dirty looking clothes in the trotro... talking to a subordinate...?? Do I....? Really, do I...?

You yourselves are our letter... known and read by everybody. You show that you are a letter from Christ...

2 Corinthians 3:2,3 (NIV)

In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.

Matthew 5:16 (NIV)

... and then I ask...

what about you...?