Curly Hair

I have been around for several fads in my lifetime - leisure suits, bell bottom jeans, white painter pants with bandannas tied to hammer loop, earth shoes (anyone remember those?) and many more.

I want to tell you about a fad from the 80’s (that is, the 1980’s not 1880’s) - men perming their hair. I am not exactly sure why I decided to jump on the bandwagon but in my senior year in college, I decided to perm my hair when I got it cut. My hair has always been straight so perming my hair gave it some body and lift that it otherwise did not have.

For the rest of the 80’s, I would get my hair permed every 2-3 months when I got my haircut. After I graduated from college, I would occasionally get asked why my hair was suddenly curlier than it was the day before and I’d reply that I got it cut. To this day, I do not know whether people bought my subterfuge or just politely dropped the inquiry. It wasn’t until I changed jobs and moved in the early 90’s that I stopped pursuing the haircut/perm maneuver. 

Yesterday, I saw a post that stated that trans-women are women. I realized that we try to deceive ourselves and others all the time.

“Now concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered together to him, we ask you, brothers, not to be quickly shaken in mind or alarmed, either by a spirit or a spoken word, or a letter seeming to be from us, to the effect that the day of the Lord has come. Let no one deceive you in any way. For that day will not come, unless the rebellion comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction, who opposes and exalts himself against every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, proclaiming himself to be God. Therefore God sends them a strong delusion, so that they may believe what is false, in order that all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.” - 2 Thessalonians 2:1-4, 11-12 ESV

“the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, then what becomes of our boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? By a law of works? No, but by the law of faith. For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law.” - Romans 3:22-24, 27-28

Deception is the rub, isn’t it?  All the time we compare ourself to others to try to determine relative goodness. I cannot tell you the number of conversations I have been involved in where a person was singled out as either a bad example or a good example. If we realize that we are all abject sinners are deserving of death and separation from God, those kind of comparisons have limited value (determination of the need for law/regulation, avoiding someone else’s sin, etc.)

The reality is that, no matter how hard we strive to present a good facade, God knows every sin stain we’ve ever had. It is only through the sacrifice of Jesus that our sins are cleaned - truly hidden, forgiven.