The Alpine Theater on Main Street in Ripley, WV. Yup. I don’t remember the movie. I do remember that DAY. Pretty much the ONLY time in my life a haircut ever mattered to me.

As a 10-year-old boy growin’ up then, my hair was … well, like it is now. What’s on my head. But I had a 28-year-old mom, and it meant a LOT more to her. Perms were all the rage. So me and my little bro had one. Till two days AFTER that night in the theater.

A lady a couple rows back mentioned “those two girls have the prettiest hair.”

Yup. That’s it.

The barber shop was about a fifteen-minute walk from school. So instead of walkin’ home that Monday, yours truly made a pit stop. My mom was mad. Boy, was she mad.

I learned somethin’ then that — throughout my life, and DEFINITELY as a married fellow — I know a lot more now. Changing your hair can change the way you feel about yourself. For all of us to some degree. For some folks, a lot more.

It’s a reflection of how we feel. But it is only that — a reflection. What’s inside is what truly matters, regardless of the outer covering. And that’s much harder to change.

A few years later — I still had very short hair, if you’re wonderin’ — I was at a tent revival when a permanent change came over me. Something no haircut could ever change. No style of clothes. No vocabulary. Because He came into my being.

I opened the door and let Him in. It was not “a little off the top.” It was a forever transformation. Not something a pair of scissors or a can of hairspray can undo. And for that, I’m eternally grateful.

Just a thought from a guy that still cuts his hair with a vacuum cleaner … to his wife’s dismay.

Bible Verses

Romans 6:1-14 / 1 Samuel 16:1-13

Questions

Who’s your favorite barber??? When did you last feel “new” — and did it grow out???