Taylor's Closet

Days until England: 34 

This morning at church I saw a new friend of mine. Her name is Lindsey, and she is the founder of a place called "Taylor's Closet." Taylor's Closet is a building full of brand new designer clothes, that are given away to girls at risk (i.e. homeless, abused, abandoned, etc...). Lindsey is 17 yrs old. She started Taylor's Closet when she was 14 because her school required a certain amount of service hours per-year. Instead of volunteering with her friends at a soup kitchen or clothing closet, she decided to create her own ministry. A huge fan of fashion herself, Lindsey realized how frustrating it would be for a teenage girl to only own used or passed down clothing. Instead, she thought, what if there was a way to give girls brand-new-hip clothes so they would feel special from the outside-in. What she discovered was that once girls who have never been trusted with much in there lives were given access to beautiful expensive clothes, their barriers came down. Lindsey saw this an an opportunity to fill these girl's lives with affirmation and love; an opportunity she could only attribute to the God who tells us we are all precious. Well, as they say, the rest is history. Right now Taylor's Closet, located on our church's Pompano Campus, reaches almost 6,000 girls a year with new clothes as well as other opportunities to cook and create art. 

I wanted to tell you about Lindsey, because her ministry has created a conversation about  how precious everyone is to God. When I am around Lindsey I feel the same way I do after I watch "Passion of the Christ." In that, after watching that movie, I always go away with a profound sense of God's sacrificial love for the world. I walk around the rest of the day noticing each person I come across, thinking, "The creator of the Universe died for you and you don't even know it. He loves you more than you or I can understand, and we yet hardly stop to notice Him at work." I realize that many people have a problem with this idea, i.e. the classic complaint that church is all about guilt. But I don't get that, not that some traditions don't make you feel really guilty, they do! Instead, when I consider the cross, I sense Freedom.  God setting us free from all the ways we screw up, all the things we've done or said that leave us reeling in their wake. Things maybe no one knows we've done, and therefore can't make us feel guilty about, and yet we do feel guilty! Why? Why do we feel some things are right, and some are wrong, unless at one point the world was created for one purpose, and now that purpose has gone awry. The bible tells me God created the world and everything in it, and that it was good. The mystics say we all carry a spark of that divine creation, and our job as believers is to unleash that holy light, so everyone will at last understand God has been and always will be dwelling in us.

Henri Nowen, author, teacher and Catholic Priest, noted of the people around him, "...they go about their lives ...unaware they are shinning like the sun." I am convinced God fearfully and wonderfully created me, and you, and Lindsey from Taylor's closet, and girls at risk in South Florida, and my enemies, and the homeless guy who sits outside my local CVS, and all of creation! Now we have only to acknowledge Her handy work. 


"When God lives and breathes in you (and he does, as surely as he did in Jesus), you're delivered from that dead life. With his Spirit living in you, your body will be as alive as Christ's!" 
Romans 8:11b


(Special thanks to Taylor's Closet for the photos. All further info about TC can be found by following the links placed throughout this post)