Vineyard Women

by Trish Wright

I have to say that one of the best things that has happened to me at the Vine is flat-front pants.

It’s true. For years I had been in bondage to high-waisted, pleated-front, tapered leg pants. The reason for this is that high-waisted, pleated-front, tapered leg pants were all the fashion rage when my first child was born. At that point in my life, I entered into a sort of style hibernation that lasted for years, lasted in fact until I came to this church and met some authentically cool people.

Apparently while I was hibernating in the throes of young motherhood, a lot happened. Waistlines dropped, legs widened, inseams got longer. I’m not sure when this all started, but it was sometime after 1997 because I swear to you, at one time I was cool. Before I became pregnant with my daughter, I not only knew what was in style, but I could also afford it. I shopped at American Eagle and The Gap. No, for real!

But then 1997 came, and I just sort of stayed there until sometime around 2003. I think that was the year that one of my friends at the Vine gave me a pair of jeans she didn’t want anymore. They were Calvin Klein, below-waist, slightly flared legs. I wore them for the first time to a women’s retreat, and I was utterly mortified. I spent the entire retreat feeling like my pants could fall down around my ankles at any moment. Plus, I hadn’t realized that if one is going to transition from Mom Jeans to low-waisted jeans, one has to purchase undergarments that are also low-waisted, which I had not done. I just knew that everyone could see my underwear anytime I leaned over to pray for someone, and I was probably right. To say I was uncomfortable in cool jeans would be the understatement of the year; if this was fashionable, then I was all for staying a nerd.

But that was just my first time in hip pants. I persevered in getting myself up-to-date, and I am proud to say that I no longer own a single pair of pleated-front pants. In fact, I found that being built like a fire plug, I do not have a naturally cinched waist or pencil-thin tapered legs. Who would have guessed? Mom Jeans are just plain unnatural on me. And to think that at one time that was the only thing I was comfortable wearing. My hip friends at the Vine did in fact know what they were doing when they awakened me from fashion hibernation. Thank you, Church!

My relationship with Jesus has not been unlike my relationship with my jeans. When Jesus rouses me from my out-of-date comfort zone, it feels much like my thirty-something belly and backside are spilling out all over for the world to see. It’s risky, it’s uncomfortable, it challenges all my long-held prejudices and limitations. It’s also the cost of staying current. Fact is, I can’t stay in the place I was in ten years ago and still be effective for him in the world. He has to have permission to push me onward in maturity, whatever that may mean.

Hopefully it doesn’t ever mean wearing pleated pants again.