How long do you typically wear a pair of jeans before you wash them? Unless I get them sweaty or so dirty they are unpresentable, I will wear a pair of jeans for multiple days because I want to preserve water as well as avoid wear and tear on the denim. But after a couple days, natural skin oils leave my jeans feeling grimy. Also the normal motion of my daily activity stretches them out, and they feel too loose to my liking. For me, the sweet spot is three days, but no more than that. After day three, the jeans go in the dirty laundry bin. How about you? Are you a single-use person? Maybe two days? How many days do wear them?
Believe it or not, the CEO of Levis, Chip Bergh, said that you should never wash a pair of jeans. He meant it, claiming that he does not ever wash his jeans. Washing them, he said, does damage to the denim. Instead he spots cleans with a toothbrush, as needed. How do you feel about that?
I love the feeling of newly-washed jeans, either crisp from being line dried, or softer from the dryer. Admittedly, Mr. Bergh is right; over time, washing jeans will fade their fabric. Mine always thin in the knees, inevitably leading to holes. But I can’t imagine never washing my jeans. Wouldn’t they start to stink? They would! Anti-washers have solutions for that. Put your jeans in the freezer overnight to kill the bacteria creating the odor, or hang them out in the sunlight, or spray them with a deodorizer. Again, I ask, how do you feel about that?
I’m talking about laundry because over the next two weeks, in our sermon series through Colossians, the writer of the New Testament letter of Colossians, the Apostle Paul, talks about laundry. This coming week we’ll study part 1, taking off the dirty clothes, and the following week, part 2, will be about putting clean clothes on.
When it comes to the kind of laundry Paul is talking about, it seems he would differ from the CEO of Levis. But what kind of laundry is Paul talking about? Check out Colossians 3:5-11 ahead of time, then I look forward to discussing this with you on the blog next week.
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