Then Saul dressed David in his own tunic. He put a coat of armor on him and a bronze helmet on his head. David fastened on his sword over the tunic and tried walking around, because he was not used to them. “I cannot go in these,” he said to Saul, “because I am not used to them.” So he took them off. Then he took his staff in his hand, chose five smooth stones from the stream, put them in the pouch of his shepherd’s bag and, with his sling in his hand, approached the Philistine. (1 Samuel 17: 38-40)

I had gone to the store last week on a quest for some “decent” t-shirts to wear to the church during the week.  The bar I’ve set for “decent” is pretty low: they need to fit, they need to be affordable on my budget, they need to not have stains on the front of them, and they need to not be screaming a brand name.  I quickly had to modify what my standard for affordability was; like when did a plain t-shirt get so expensive?  Regardless, I found about 3 that met my criteria and went off to the change rooms to try them on.  While I was there, a mother came in with her daughter and a fistful of very pretty sundresses, for her daughter to try on.  And I totally got to eaves-drop on their conversation.

The daughter would dutifully try on a dress, then come out of the change room to model it for her mother, and the conversation would go like this:

“I like that one.  It makes you look 10 pounds lighter”

“I think that one will fit beautifully if you lighten up on your snacks for a little while.  Its pulling too much on your waist”.

“Oh that one works.  It covers up your heavy thighs”.

All of the comments were a variation of how the dresses covered up and disguised the daughter’s body in a way that made her look slimmer, or taller or somehow not in possession of the body that she had.

And I caught myself looking in the mirror at my plain t-shirts and pondered if they disguised my body and presented it to the public in a more acceptable way.  And I shook myself and reminded myself of the mantra I have repeated to many people many times: Your clothes need to fit your body, your body doesn’t need to fit your clothes.

But too often we work to fit our bodies and ourselves into clothes and activities and programs instead of finding clothes, activities and programs to fit us.

The original story of Cinderella, consolidated in “Grimms Fairy tales” in the early 1800s, recounts the section where the step-sisters try on Cinderella’s shoe with a whole lot more grim details that haven’t made it into the Western Disney sanitized version of the story.  In the original story, the step-sisters’ desperation to be the named as the next Princess brings them to the point where they mutilate their feet; cutting off sections of their heels and breaking their toes, in order to squeeze into the shoe.  They do this not realizing that they were never meant to fit the shoe; the shoe was ‘magicked’ by Cinderella’s Fairy Godmother and could only ever fit her.  So regardless of how hard they tried, and how far they were willing to change, they never would ‘fit’ enough to be the Princess.

In our dislike of the step-sisters and their treatment of Cinderella, we’ve lost the tragedy of the story – the tragedy that desperation and longing for a different life would bring people to the point where they would mutilate themselves in order to fit something that they never would be able to.

And I wonder today, where we recognize this in ourselves?  Are we with that mom and daughter in the change room, plotting weight loss in order to fit into a sundress?  Or are we willing to mutilate ourselves in order to ‘fit’ into a program, or a setting or even a faith community?  Because the stories of our faith tell us that David had to ditch Saul’s armor in order to slay Goliath.  David had to take off what was given to him – what was considered ‘best practices’ for defeating something threatening their community.  And David had to take what he knew would work for him; shedding all of the expectations of what the rest of the world thought would work for him.  David’s willingness to shed expectations and be himself was what allowed him to slay the Giant.

So today, my dear Bethel Friends.  Lets go and find the glass slippers that were meant for us in the first place, and stop looking at the ones that we were never even supposed to try on.  Because the clothes should fit our Body.  The Body of Christ that was created so beautifully.  And its only this way that we can slay the Giants that are threatening us.

Blessings today, and Remember you are Loved.

~Rev. Lynne