A few weeks ago, I made fun of my friend Sojourner because he wore a tiger shirt on stage. I teased him because I was jealous that he could pull off a shirt with a full tiger face with no degree of irony. He is simply that cool. He didn’t even reference the shirt during the announcements he was reading from stage.
I am not nearly that cool. Even saying the phrase “Snapback” in reference to a hat seems like something I am not cool enough to do.
In retaliation, he bought me a shirt, the majesty of which is probably going to explode your computer. I have named it “Freedom,” here it is:
There are three things I find curious about this shirt:
1. How closely they cropped in on the face.
I wish I could have been in that design meeting when the client kept yelling at the artist, “Closer, closer, closer! Crop it tighter on the eagle’s face!”
2. The colors do run.
3. It says, “Do not iron.”
I would love to meet the person who thinks, “If I have a night out on the town with Freedom, I want it to look crisp! Better get out the iron!”
I’ve been wearing it all summer at BigStuf camps and taking some epic photos with people. Like this one:
How ‘Merica is that?
Bacon and Freedom!
Upon
seeing the shirt, my friend Ben Snider confessed one of his favorite games to play as a worship leader. He didn’t have an official name for it, so I’ll just call it “How to Hillbilly Up a Worship song.”
The game is easy to play.
Step one: Take your favorite worship song.
Step two: Change the words, “Our” and “Your” in the lyrics to the word “Y’all’s.”
Step three: Sing the song.
It might not seem like fun, but I promise, it’s delightful. Watch:
“Our God Reigns” becomes “Y’all’s God Reigns.”
“How Great is Our God” becomes “How Great is Y’all’s God.”
“Blessed Be Your Name” becomes “Blessed Be Y’all’s Name.”
I could do this all day, but you get the point. It’s delightful! It helps if you sing it with a little twang, (As if you are gargling with sweet tea) and don’t turn it into a theological discussion about the trinity. (Is the Father, Son and Holy Ghost, technically a “y’all?”)
What’s one worship song or lyric you’d like to hillbilly up? Share it in the comments!
takes the medium of music as close to grace as I’ve seen anyone take it. His line, “We’re all made out of shipwrecks” is some kind of crazy beautiful. (In my wildest dreams, this is the kind of thing I’d like to do with some of my ideas.)