Around Christmastime in my third year of university a brilliant money making idea popped into my head—I would sell customized toques to fellow students!

So, I took a photo, made a poster and, once the student council approved it, placed it on a busy bulletin board. And the calls started coming in, and no order was straightforward. The requests were sometimes so bizarre I had to have them drawn out for me. And I worked harder than I've ever worked on a hat before.

The designs were tough and by the time I was finished my clients didn't seem very pleased. So I replaced all the “customized” orders with the toques I usually made—solid grey or black with three colourful stripes. And everyone was happy.

This experience made me wonder why my customers weren't happy with the designs they had chosen, but were satisfied with my generic styling. The answer I believe is because I know what works in a toque design and they do not. They don't know what fibres work best with each other, what designs will look like when translated into yarn, and what colours complement each other best. In short, although they thought they knew what they wanted, they didn't.

I was reminded of this experience while thinking about how tailored our world is today. We are told we can customize virtually everything in our lives because we know ourselves best. It's called You Sell marketing and makes us feel like we have a say in what we consume. Steve Maich in his book The Ego Boom: Why the World Really Does Revolve Around You describes this phenomenon quite well, saying this type of marketing makes us feel like we have control, but we actually don't.

The truth is, we don't know best. When I look critically at my choices I notice they're mostly influenced by something I saw on Pinterest…something a celebrity said…or something my friend wore. Like it or not, we are influenced by our society and need to be aware of it.

It makes me wonder how much of my faith and theology is influenced and distorted by outside sources. The only way I know how to protect it is to stop acting like I'm the only thing controlling my thoughts and actions and rely on the Holy Spirit to be my influence.

Because when I actually think about it, I'm no different from those people ordering crazy toques from me. I don't really know what's best, I just think I do.

Related Resources:

• Solomon: When the Heart is Turned Away
• Rebelling Against Cliché
• Generation Entitlement