Ponytails And Clean Fingernails

I recently found a place where (for a reasonable fee) they would (as they say) “lower my ears.”

Whenever I go anywhere to get my hair cut someone will ask me what I would like it to look like and since I rarely (or try not to) look at myself in the mirror I always feel like I am not the best one to make that judgment. “You’re the expert.” I always say, “Just do what you think is best.”

Having grown up through the 60’s I have always been somewhat fascinated with hairstyles. From time to time I think about just letting it grow. In my mind I can picture myself as an aging hippie, going through life with French cuffed shirts, three-piece suits, tennis shoes and a ponytail; the 21st century expression of “cool.”

I know that I appear to be a fairly conservative guy (and basically I am) but the length of a person’s hair has never really been that big a deal to me. Maybe it’s because of all the years I’ve worn a beard of some sort. When I first grew a beard (back in the late 70’s…which seems like a long time ago) I would find myself (from time to time) talking to older people who thought my beard was a sort of “abomination” and yet talked endearingly about their grandfathers who were often pictured sporting long, untrimmed chin whiskers. I never quite understood the difference.

In High School, when my hair was actually shorter than it is today, my father (who thought I was beginning to look too much like an actual hippie) offered to pay me $2.00 to get my hair cut. He was a crew cut (flat top) kind of guy. We were operating with differing definitions of the word “long.”

On the surface, following Jesus seems easy. After all, he has done all of the heavy lifting. The complication is that there seem to be a lot of (inconsequential) things that tend to get in the way for us.

So, we end up saying (without saying it) things like, “Jesus died for your sins and all you have to do is trust Him, as long as you get your hair cut and clean under your fingernails.” Or “God really loves you, but He would love you better if you wore a nicer pair of jeans.”

It seems to me that God’s love for us is non-negotiable and his sacrifice for us is thoroughly sufficient. I always put things like church attendance, tithing, Bible study and service as expressions of our thanksgiving. These are some of the things that I expect to see in me because I love Jesus more than anything else in this life. These are things that I expect we should all do gladly because our relationship with Jesus is making a difference in our lives every day. I suppose (under certain circumstances) I could insert clean clothes and personal grooming into the conversation at this point, but I would never want to get these carts in front of the actual horse (if you get my drift.)

So, I expect that when I finally get the nerve to move into my ponytail/three-piece suit stage that Jesus will love me just as much and I will love him the same (or hopefully even more.)