The
Saturday turned out to be just beautiful with
the perfect temperature and clear skies. We
spent the day shopping and eating out and
ended it with an outdoor music festival called
WayFest sponsored by WAY-FM.
As we approached the entrance to the festival,
the energy and atmosphere seemed electric.
This was my first time at this type of festival
and I found myself constantly looking around
trying to take everything in. I watched crowds
of visually diverse people, listened to up-and-coming
bands, and noticed the facility workers who
seemed quite interested in what was going
on. It was then that a passion that God had
put on my heart a few months earlier began
to blaze again.
When
my wife and I headed to Nashville I’d
already begun a spiritual journey that placed
within me the desire to use my design talents
to plant seeds in the hearts of others. I
wanted to create a company that would give
my family and my finances more options. Since
I’d been serving teenagers at our church
and becoming very familiar with youth culture,
I wanted to create my own line of Christian
merchandise with materials that teens could
proudly wear or carry to spread the love of
God.
I
had already bounced this idea off trusted
and very successful people I knew in our church.
After taking time to hear what people had
to say, I started off with the sense of excitement
over what God could do through this opportunity.
I began to rush through things as quickly
as the ideas raced through my mind. But then
I began to lose the blaze of passion that
I’d had for this adventure.
One
of the steps that I rushed through was naming
my company. I wanted a name that people would
recognize and that would communicate that
our designs were clean and "soul safe."
The name I came up with was "Dirtless."
(Your eyes aren't playing tricks on you).
With this type of haste, you know why my blaze
was being snuffed out. The name didn't seem
to have that "etched in stone" or
"anointed" dynamic. In the couple
months prior to the Nashville trip, I couldn't
escape the feeling that this wasn't exactly
right. Needless to say, this uneasiness leached
its way into all parts of the journey.
While
walking through the festival, I found myself
looking at t-shirt designs that I passed and
that excitement began to grow again. The vendors
grabbed my attention as I watched them interact
with people at a customer level while having
spiritual concern for them. I started day
dreaming about doing the same in such an awesome
atmosphere.
As
the day progressed, the hot sun made us all
quite thirsty and my wife's cousin Joseph
and I were sent on a mission to find cool
refreshments. While standing in the loooong
line, Joseph and I began to talk about stuff
that youth would buy and I saw an opportunity
to pick his brain a little. He was a prime
example of my target audience. As we were
talking he suddenly said, "I have a cool
t-shirt idea." He then described a design
that consisted of some murky substance passing
through the cross and becoming "purified"
on the other end. It was like a lightning
bolt hit me in the back of the head. Joseph
continued talking and sharing ideas, but all
I heard was the “wahwahwah” of
the Peanuts’ teacher as the word "purified"
monopolized my thoughts for the rest of the
night.
After
we returned to the house that night I grabbed
some paper and began to write out “purified”.
Knowing that the spelling "purified"
would be used by every water treatment company
under the sun I sought something unique. What
I do is all visual, inspiring me to choose
"Purifeyed.”
Since
that trip, God has really blessed and opened
many doors for Purifeyed. When I hired an
attorney to trademark the name, I was quite
nervous about the results of the trademark
search. I thought for sure someone had thought
of that name before me, but the results came
back all clear leaving “Purifeyed”
open for me to own. What a blessing!
That
is the story of how the name came. It all
goes to prove that God is still in the business
of taking our passions and talents and transforming
them into vehicles for His glory.