A Mental Shift

Recently, I substituted at the last school in which I taught before I retired. It was Wednesday, and the staff was going to a two-day teachers' convention the next day. I considered what to wear. The students and staff of this school had worn uniforms in the past. Now the dress code was decent, but definitely casual.

I wondered if the teachers would be wearing jeans that day, since it would be like a Friday to them. I texted one of my former colleagues, and sure enough, the teachers had decided to wear denim. This "casual Friday" mentality is a far cry from most of my teaching days, when we wore uniforms. I would never have dreamt of wearing jeans in a professional setting. Now, I found myself in a huge mental shift. I found a pair of clean jeans, however, and wore them to school — the first time ever as a teacher!

The act of wearing jeans to school is insignificant in the grand scheme of things, but makes a good illustration of our freedom in Christ.

Galatians 5:1 – So Christ has truly set us free. Now make sure that you stay free, and don't get tied up again in slavery to the law. (NLT)

Jewish Christians thought that they had to keep the whole law and be circumcised as they had been doing under Judaism. I thought that I had to wear a certain kind of clothing because the nearly twenty years that our family had worn school uniforms left me with the mindset that a teacher had to look a bit dressed up. Wearing uniforms was useful to us at the time, just as the issues of keeping the law and of circumcision were useful in their time to reveal God to the people. It also showed them, however, that ceremonies and keeping every aspect of the law was impossible without faith.

Galatians 5:5-6,13b – But we who live by the Spirit eagerly wait to receive by faith the righteousness God has promised to us. For when we place our faith in Christ Jesus, there is no benefit in being circumcised or being uncircumcised. What is important is faith expressing itself in love. Use your freedom to serve one another in love. (NLT)

As I wore jeans to school that day, there was no difference in the way that I related to the students. If anything, my love for individual students has increased since I retired, as the fruit of the Spirit grows in me, and I am less focused on myself. The Christ-life does not make great distinctions in what I should wear or what I should eat. What is important is relating to others and serving them with love in my heart.

Let's not be bound by rules and regulations, but let us be free in Christ by faith alone, to love and serve one another.

Prayer: Thank You, Lord, for rescuing us from believing that we have to live by following certain ways of doing things. Thank You that by putting our faith in Christ, we are free, not only from the bondage of sin, but from rules and regulations that would hinder us from living our lives by grace. Help us to grow in our love for people and to serve them selflessly. In Jesus' name, we pray. Amen.