On Finding Fads Funny

Finding Fads Facetious ---------------------------------------------------------
Isn’t it funny how things become a fad among kids? My grandchildren are currently wearing “silly bands” around their wrists in copious quantities. For the uninitiated, silly bands are assorted colors of rubber bands which are shaped like various mammals and fish, among other things. It seems to me they are appropriately named since wearing a rubber band in the shape of anything around your wrist causes it to lose anything but the shape of your wrist? The question I have is, “who is authorized to start a fad?” Are there folks who have that particular job description and are stationed throughout the country for that purpose?
For instance, who started the fad of tattoos covering the body of otherwise normal appearing middle class young people. Tattoos were once reserved for those on the wild side who rode Harley Hogs and were sailors. For that matter, who made it a fad for middle class, middle aged folks with spreading middles to ride Harleys all over the country in the middle of the road?
I remember when wearing letter sweaters and letter jackets, was the “in” thing to do and anyone who was anyone in high school had one. They were properly worn with black slacks, pointed toe shoes, a tee shirt, and hair slicked back with “cream oil charley.” One could get away with jeans, but black, skinny legged, corduroys were really the proper dress.
Then of course, there was the fad of wearing blue jeans with at least 8 inches of cuff turned up. Since I rode my bicycle to David Lollar’s house across from the school and left it in his yard for the day, the turned up cuffs allowed me to tuck my thin spelling book into the cuff for the ride to and from school. After all, one was required to bring a book home and the spelling book was the least obtrusive to a person’s riding ability. Today, young people wear jeans that are more worn out the first time they put them on than mine were when Mama relegated them to the rag bin, having been patched numerous times. How did it get to be a fad to have the seat of your britches revealing the hue of your underwear? In fact, when did it get to be a fad to have your underwear have hues?
I remember in the 80s it was a fad to wear safety pins on your jeans jacket. Eighth and ninth grade girls showed up at school with enough safety pins on their jeans jacket to double the weight of the garment. I suspect many of them, now thirty something, are suffering from back conditions brought about by toting excess weight around in junior high. The safety pins, complimented by scrunchies around their wrist and metallic braces on their teeth completed, “the look.” For boys it was parachute pants and the ability to “break dance” that labeled you as one who knew what was “rad.”
Bobby Socks, saddle shoes, pencil skirts, and can-can petticoats on girls were answered by white tee shirts, preferably with a pack of cigarettes rolled up in the sleeve, fruit boots, and watch bands two or more inches wide, on guys in the late 50s and early 60s.
It was in the 1970 though, that fad became the coin of the realm. Otherwise serious men showed up at work with ties wide enough to allow them to cover their entire chest with the loud, paisley print affairs, and men’s shirts, which had traditionally been white became flowered prints with wide cuff, wide collars, and rows of buttons on the sleeves. High heeled shoes were no longer reserved for women and many men, including yours truly, wore “platform” shoes to the office. Leisure suits completed the height of the ridiculous and I remember one instance in which I had bought a light kaki colored leisure suit with military cut in Michigan and worn it back to Tennessee to impress the locals. When I walked up to my sisters door she remarked that I looked just like “Ramah of the Jungle going on a safari,” – leave it to a sister to take the wind out of your sails.
Perhaps the most offensive of all of the fads is the current one of wearing your pants down around your knees. Don’t those folks know we are not interested in seeing their BVDs? Why would anyone want to wear their pants that way? Given my considerable waist line which makes it difficult to keep my pants at the proper place, I am only too aware of how uncomfortable it is having your pants at low mast.
Well, I could go on and on with this and perhaps have, but it brings to mind the trends in “worship style.” It has moved from the informal style of the thousands of small congregations which met at 10:00 a.m. every Sunday morning and five minutes before worship the song leader could be seen picking out the song selections on the front seat, to the mega churches of today where every “service” is a choreographed show designed to draw the emotions of the congregants to a crescendo at several peak moments of the exactly one hour performance. Every move is planned today versus the old days when every move was extemporaneous. Even churches of Christ, once all firmly dedicated to acapella singing, that is without instruments, have bowed to the fad of the day to the point that I recently saw one with an article dedicated to the introduction of their “praise band” complete with drums, lead guitars, flashing strobe lights, and electronic piano.
While the church is, and in fact must be, set in the culture of the day, it is important that we recognize that fad is not to dictate what we do, either on Sunday or the other six days of the week. It is important that we realize that the order of things in the assembly must be:
1. Pleasing God
2. Teaching and encouraging others
3. If we work toward the first two, grace will dictate that we ourselves are lifted up.
I am not smart enough to sort out whether the haphazard worship style of the 1940s or the choreographed style of the new century is that which will please The Living God, but I do know that it is the heart of the worshiper He seeks and having that heart directed toward pleasing Him first and providing encouragement to others as a secondary goal is at least one step to worshiping “in spirit and in truth.” In fact, if I read the scripture right, admonishing others IS pleasing God.
“speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord.” Ephesians 5:19

Have a blessed day, and visit us at Maple Hill church of Christ where we make every effort to find a balance acceptable to God. Bob