The Theology of Haircuts.

What is it about haircuts? There is something about going in and getting your hair cut off that is refreshing. I got my hair cut on Wednesday and I walked out feeling like a new person. My hair going into the appointment was a mess. It stuck out everywhere and just got in the way and it was hot on those 90 degree days.. That's when I went in and got it cut. Having all of my hair gone felt much better.

I wasn't always this way. I used to hate getting my hair cut. I think it had to do with the fact that I went to a barber shop to a guy named Walter who would talk loudly and wave his hands around while trying to cut my hair. There is something that isn't reassuring about a guy who waves a pair of scissors at your head while you are strapped to a chair. I don't know, maybe I'm the only one who feels that way.

I think there was something else. I hated change when I was young. No, really, I HATED CHANGE. Seriously, I cried on New Year's Eve 1989 because I was sad that the 80's were gone. ( I can't believe that I just admitted that). But I did. I hated change. I didn't think there was anything wrong with my hair. Here's how bad it was. When I was 9, I had a rat tail. (wow, another admission that I could have done with out.) I had one of several forms of "The Mullet". I had a mullet and I didn't want to get it cut. I cried when I went to Walter's Barber Shop. I climbed into the chair and he took his scissors and cut it off. He then held it up and made a war cry that someone would cry after scalping someone. The guy was terrifying. I cried all afternoon. I didn't see anything wrong with my hair. 

So what happened? Somewhere along the way I realized that change didn't have to be a bad thing. In fact, change could free me from things that were keeping me down. I began to embrace change. Sometimes it was still painful. Sometimes I had to let go of things that I had held on to for years. But I started to see change as a good thing. Haircuts soon became a chance for a new beginning. It was a chance to take away the mess that my hair had become and start again from scratch.

I hate it when my sin is pointed out to me. Whether it's by the Bible, or a sermon, my wife, or prayer, it hurts. It hurts to hear that I had been going against God's will and that I need to change. It is painful to change our lives to reflect God. But it's just like a haircut. Sometimes we let our lives get messy. We let sin into our lives and it just gets in the way and messes everything up. If we let this sin continue we will ultimately be overwhelmed. We might get to the point where we don't see anything wrong with how we are living.

Even though it's tough, we need to confront the sin in our life just like we need to get our hair cut. We need the ability to start fresh. We need a clean slate. We need to cut all of the sin out of our lives so that we can start from scratch. It's beautiful that God can do this for us through Christ Jesus. Our lives can be completely changed if we would accept the notion that we are sinners and that God can help cut the sin from our lives. We can encounter God and feel like a new creation.

That's the theology of a haircut.