Baldness
Have you ever lost anything? I mean lost it so bad that no matter where you looked you couldn’t find it?
I have lost my hair. It’s true. Believe me, I have looked for it, too. It is nowhere to be found. In fact, I can’t even find it in the drain of my shower anymore. I looked down the other day and saw some hair in the drain. Excitedly, I reached down to retrieve my long, lost friends. My elation quickly turned to bitter disappointment as I realized that I do not have curly blonde hair. When I told Lanette that I had found some of her hair she looked at me as if I were from another planet. Okay, in all honesty, I get that look from her all the time.
As my hair loss reached epic proportions, I decided to embrace baldness. I laugh out loud at some of the things men will do to cover the fact that they are losing their hair. There is the “comb-over.” Men will grow their hair long in back or on one of the sides and then flip it forward or over to cover the bald spot on top.
The “comb-over” is nowhere near as hideous as what I call “the cinnamon roll complex.” Have you seen this? You start with a comb over, then swirl the long strands of hair around and around until the top of your head looks like a furry cinnamon roll. Then you have to use about half a can of hair spray to shellac it down. My family and I saw a guy with a cinnamon roll at a donut shop once. The wind came up, and this thing rose above his head like an airfoil. I thought he was going to take off! For some reason, I thought about “The Flying Nun….”
You can get all kinds of potions, shampoos, pills etc. to stop your hair loss and even grow new hair. Supposedly. If the medicines don’t work you can always get a hair transplant or a wig. Let’s see, to get a hair transplant, I have to get thousands of little cuts on my head so they can transplant hair from somewhere else on my body to the top of my head. I don’t think so. Besides, isn’t that the way Barbie gets her hair?
The bottom line is that I am getting older. And for me, that meant losing my hair. Oh, I know all of the comebacks I could use, “You can’t grow grass on a busy street,” or “God made a few perfect heads, the rest He covered with hair.” I have decided that going bald is part of who I am. I am okay with it, and I won’t try to stop it!
Christians should adopt the same attitude. We need to quit trying to be like everyone else. I don’t mean that we need to become some kind of freak show, but there should be something different about a Christian. After all, we are saved and going to Heaven. That should count for something in our lives. Wear a smile. Be positive. When people ask you why, tell them why. Let them know that Jesus has made a difference in all of your life, not just the part lived on Sunday.
In the third century, Cyprian, the Bishop of Carthage, wrote to his friend Donatus:
“It is a bad world, Donatus, an incredibly bad world. But I have discovered in the midst of it a quiet and good people who have learned the great secret of life. They have found a joy and wisdom which is a thousand times better than any of the pleasures of our sinful life. They are despised and persecuted, but they care not. They are masters of their souls. They have overcome the world. These people, Donatus, are Christians… and I am one of them.”
If that is your testimony, you will make a mark.
Embracing my chrome dome… Jerry