Faith Over Fear

Kerstin Block opened up the first Buffalo Exchange store in 1974.  There’s one location on 2nd Street and East Livingston Street in Long Beach, California. The store was new to me because I was used to paying and overpaying for new apparel. The savings made from shopping partially at stores like this taught me a lesson on stewardship. Learning from each other was an orchestration composed above. ManMan and I entered the store initially because he had a pair of shoes he was going to trade in for store credit/cash. Tagging along I went to the used printed t-shirt circular rack. There were at least one hundred different selections on the chrome tubing arranged by size. Each t-shirt slide apart from the next t-shirt in succession, displayed for a fleeting moment, deciding which design I might slide over my full chest and moving body mattered to me. Skulls where out. Graffiti text no. Dripping spray paint not on a t-shirt. There were other final creations from many different clothing brands that did not make the cut. One black t-shirt to the right changed the judgements into one miracle. May 2nd. The find.

 

Slightly faded from wash cycles and there for the taking, “Faith Over Fear” spoke to me like no other t-shirt had. The tattoo font shaded and cursive grey was perfect for my style, not flashy. Minimal yet poignant. The excitement stemmed from the touch of the unseen printed from a silk screen onto a mobile billboard for God. It was a statement of encouragement a mantra up for adoption. The cost was low, but the payoff was as high as the heavens. Six dollars. The person who brought in their used t-shirt to refresh their wardrobe fixed me up fancy. I’ll never know who they are, but I am thankful to be stuck with the needle I found in the heaps of used clothing to play the record of faithfulness once more.

What was bought on Saturday was worn on Sunday, God’s best working behind the scenes in the unseen. The next day after singing with the Living Waters choir at an mostly black church anchored me for an afternoon in Hermosa Beach at Jereme Rodgers’ home with ManMan. This was unfamiliar territory. The story gathering for ManMan’s brother ended up here. When Jereme returned to his home with his girlfriend. He walked through his recording studio out to where I was at on a sunny balcony. This was exciting so I took a photo of ManMan and Jereme Rodgers together facing the sliding glass doors and the neighborhood in the background. That’s when he explained that the “Faith Over Fear” on my used shirt is the same tattoo inked into his faint left forearm. The Lord set me up to be buffaloed by showing me his care along the way.