Dressed to Go Out

One night after watching the Padres, I wandered the streets of downtown San Diego taking photographs. A couple of blocks from the Gaslamp, one of life’s stark contrasts was pointed out to me. It was the disparity between the rich and the poor, those dressed to survive and those dressed to go places.

It amazed me how one north-south street could be lined with men and women going into a club and how the east-west street was lined with homeless men and women lying on the ground sleeping. Out of this observance, the Bible leapt off the page and rhema illuminated my mind.

The people going to the club are like people trying to get into heaven. They are dressed up and waiting at the door. The bouncer is like Jesus who judges people based on what they are wearing. In this illustration, Jesus is also the designer of the clothing. As each person walks towards the door, they hope they are clothed in the righteousness of God that is Christ Jesus.

Some of these people are good people who made their own clothes. Just like Adam and Eve they fashioned their own clothing. They knew they were naked and were ashamed and so they put on the raggedy robe of good works and the insufficient belt of self-reliance.

Some of these people are true believers. They wear the robes of righteousness and the designer tag of God Almighty is tattooed on their foreheads. Like clothes from the most exclusive designers, their robes came with a very high cost; their lives. Some were told they were foolish and others were even killed for their clothes. Regardless, it was not the change affected on the exterior, but the one on their heart that differentiate them from those who are denied entrance to heaven.



Those on the east-west street are those that Jesus came to save. They are the lost and the wicked. They live on a horizontal plane not knowing where they are, not caring what they are. These men are what Bertrand Russell called the instinctive man. They are unable to see past their immediate physical needs and therefore are, except by extreme providence, unable to obtain success even in material things.

The other parallel I drew was that of the religious person waiting to get into church. They dressed correctly and like other actors waited for the director to call them onto the stage of a tragedy. It tells the story of the Pharisee who appears outwardly clean, but whose heart is darker than that of Conrad’s Kurtz. While we wait to get into heaven, we walk by those that are perishing with no regard for their condition.

Either way, we must heed the words of James when he wrote that faith without works is dead. Our proclamation of faith means little without proper application.

Lord, I pray that today I would walk in a manner that is worthy of being called “Christian.” Let my life bring glory to your name and not shame. I thank you for the blood of your Son, Jesus Christ and that I can overcome the world with the word of my testimony and by living selflessly in You. Amen.