Try Wearing Your Shirt Inside-Out

Whether or not I am just too lazy to reverse my shirt is a valid question. Most of the time, it’s my socks, not my shirts my wife begs for me to reverse before placing them in the clothes bin. But the t-shirt placed inside out on the floor, lying there for another day waiting to be worn is the subject of choice. Gently tossed beside my bed, on the floor, is a t-shirt. Inside out from the previous wearing and if not worn for too long or for too physically active of a period, it is ready and willing for another wear.

Sometimes I like to wear my shirts inside out.

Mostly because I am in need of a solid color. The plain, soft color of the inside parts of our shirts go well with a faded pair of jeans and a track jacket from Abercrombie and Fitch. Not to mention the added texture of the seams sown together at the shoulders. Textured hair, textured jeans, and textured shirt. But the shirt is more than covering for our upper portions. They are billboards, statements if you will although most of the statements made aren’t worth the time putting it on. We wear shirts advertising a club, a sport, a team, our major, our religion, our interest, out clothing company of choice, our likes, dislikes, and sometimes family reunions that aren’t even ours but with a silly last name and ugly color, make for enjoyable conversation and looks on the street.

“Hey, are you an Aberfoyle? I know Jim Aberfoyle from Watonka, Minnesota. Are you a cousin?”

Shirts are worn for two, maybe three reasons. The first being obvious. No one wants to see our nipples. Second, comfort. Nothing beats a good soft tee on a hot afternoon in nothing but shorts and flip-flops. Third, they say something. Not only about ourselves but also about what we like and what we think about the world. Inevitable, we make statements about ourselves by what we wear. Not only about who we are and what we think but who we want to be, and what we’d like people to think we think.

Still with me?

Much of the time we devote in thrift stores across America are devoted to finding the coolest tee. Something that says, we’re cool. Or, we’re vintage. All the current styles with half the cost. The sad part about it is over time, the majority of our culture has bought into the idea that what they wear has nothing to do with what they really believe or what in fact they would actually like others to think about them. Sometimes even followers of Jesus fall into that trap.

Case in point. If I were to compile a list of the most popular statements made on shirts communicated by either an iconic picture or blatant statement, and then made a general consensus on what those shirts communicate, then summed it up in one big sentence and made a tee shirt (on a soft, slightly faded, vintage tee of course) here’s what I think it would say: I am an alcoholic sex fiend. Want to be my friend? It would sell like hotcakes.

Tee shirts are just billboards for what other people want you to say for them. And in rare cases, they actually say what you believe. I am an athlete. I am a musician. I am a prostitute. I sleep around. I am an intellect. I like movies.

Over and over again we make a statement by what we wear right under our noses, or chins and we think nothing of it. God suggests that perhaps our actions should speak for us rather than our t-shirts.

“Friends, this world is not your home, so don’t make yourselves cozy in it. Don’t indulge your ego at the expense of your soul. Live an exemplary life among the natives so that your actions will refute their prejudices. Then they’ll be won over to God’s side and be there to join in the celebration when he arrives.” (1 Peter 2:12-13, from The Message )

I’ll admit it, I’m too lazy to reverse my inside out shirt. But when I think about it, it’s more of a statement than I thought. Or like to think. The inside out tee is a statement against statements. Make a statement this year by your actions and the conversations you have with people in your dorm or neighborhood.