Since I am not a Catholic, nor do I understand how a confession booth works, I will instead confess to the whole cyber world: about a year and a half ago, I purchased a "Toms" t-shirt out of pure greed and desire to look cool. I now majorly regret that purchase.
I am not against Toms, in fact, I have many a pair. When I bought the shoes, though, I actually needed (by my frugal American standards--I had two pairs of sneakers but both were 3 years old and had holes) a pair of shoes. I wanted a nice pair for when I had to dress up for events (because I am unable to wear flats or heels) and then a casual pair or two to alternate on my normal days. When one is in need (not want) of shoes, what better place to purchase them than from Toms? That was really cool that I could get a pair of shoes and also purchase a pair for someone in need.
But a Toms t-shirt--in my case, not so cool at all.
I have many shirts. So many, in fact, that I have cut up a ton in hopes of creating a quilt out of them. I did not and still do not need any shirts. So why did I purchase a Toms shirt? And why do I regret that decision now?
I purchased that Toms shirt because of my "need" for a choral colored shirt that fit just as so. If you just looked at my closet and saw all those earth tones, you would know I needed some brighter colors to spice it up. At least that was part of my thought process. In all honesty, though, as I mentioned before, I have a lot of clothes. The "need" was actually a pure desire so I would feel better about my closet. It was totally selfish and now I regret it even more as I am trying to limit my closet to those earth tones that always go well together.
To make myself feel better about spending money on clothes I figured that nothing would be better to buy that from a charity organization that supports Christian values of social justice. Clothing items that advertise charities or values (such as Christian values, or beliefs) are sometimes thought to encourage others to help out, too. Some people even think it is evangelistic to wear a shirt that has a Bible verse on it or says in all capitals "JESUS". My personal thought, though, is that is backwards. While I do not know each individual t-shirt wearer's story, I generally think it is pretty silly. Why spend money on a t-shirt, when you already have tons, for the sake of "helping" others? If you want your money to go towards a charity, give the money to the charity instead of getting something out of it for yourself. If one is a Christian, at least, I think that giving shouldn't be proclaimed to everyone like shirts tend to do "hey, I am such a good Christian, I gave my money to this charity, you can tell by reading my shirt! I did my kind duty of the month...just wait till next month when I wear a sweatshirt showing a different charity!" While this may be exaggerated a little, my thoughts in purchasing the shirt were kind of similar in "hey, look I support children in less-fortunate parts of the world...you should too! How? Oh, just read my shirt: TOMS."
Plus, am I the only one that internally rolls my eyes when I see people (even my friends--I do love them) wearing those Christian parody shirts? "Faith Book-- Jesus wants to put you in His book Do you accept?" I could go on about the beef I have with that particular saying, but in general, I think actions and relationships mean a lot more than the clothes one wears.
For now, I think I am going to keep my Toms shirt. Each time I see that bright choral color in my dresser drawer or wear it I will be reminded of how I should think more about my decisions. I do not want to conform to the world, but instead I want to be transformed as the Lord renews my mind.
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