Bad hair days!

                A long time ago when dinosaurs still roamed the earth, elementary school went through 6th grade and then you went to Junior High 7-9 the grade. That’s what I did. Junior High/Middle School was the minefield of personal appearance and discovering ones style or styles that it is today. That was/is a struggle. Hair can become the symbol of that struggle. My hair is curly. It has always been. During that time I spend a lot of time and effort on trying to make it straight. I didn’t tell you that my hair is curlier the longer it gets. Short, not so much, but let it grow and it takes a shape and a life all of its’ own. In Junior High I also wanted it to be long which made for a double whammy. Even today drying and straightening makes my hair more dry which makes it curlier. It did that back then too. I would get so aggravated.

                That’s what happens when things don’t go our way. However, I still continued down the path to straight, long hair of course all along assuming it would make me, cool, happy, popular etc. you know how that is. Those pictures from that time and space tell a sad tale of bad, bad, bad hair days. Did I tell you my hair is curly? It still is. Over a long period of time I gave up. I figured my hair was curly and would do what it wants to anyway so why fight it? What about going with it? That’s what I do. Turns out that the key to management was length and not curl. The truth is I was focused on the outside making me secure, significant and satisfied when it was the inside that needed the work.

                We major on the minor issues and outside veneers and fail to deal with the root causes on the inside. James Merritt in his book 52 weeks with Jesus writes of this tension between the outside and the inside. “The world wants to satisfy your body. Jesus wants to satisfy your heart. The world wants you to focus on what will eventually die—your body. Jesus wants you to focus on what is going to live forever—your soul.” [i] Repeatedly Jesus confronted the religious leaders of the day who focused on the appearance of righteous to the exclusion of real inward righteousness. It is an easy trap to fall into and not even know it. Minor issues become a distraction to the larger picture. They fog up our vison creating an illusion that we will always be in a fog or we buy into the illusion that by resolving this one thing everything else will be made right. Giving up on my hair didn’t fix everything but it sure gave me one less issue to deal with. It changed my perspective in a simple way but an important one. The larger picture of who I was/am and who I wanted to be did not depend on the quality of my hair day curly or straight!

                Jesus transforms us from the inside out. Sure we can put on a good costume and act the part but it is a thin veneer. Simply a covering that is easily punctured from within as the true nature of our selves comes to the surface. Jesus always looks beyond appearances into the heart of each of us. Clean the heart and the outside will follow. Only as we die to self are we made clean by Jesus. When we are secure, significant and satisfied in Him bad hair days make no difference!

In HIS Service and Yours

Bro G

[i] James Merritt, 52 Weeks with Jesus, (Eugene, Oregon: Harvest House, 2014), 36.