What I Learned About My Head at Church

Truth be told, we don't drag our three ring circus to church all that often, especially in the summer. But when we do, it's always memorable. Take this last Sunday, when we learned that we have (once again) cast bad luck on our semi-new church's call for a new pastor. Would it be superstitious to note that when we attend a new church, the pastor leaves and finding a new one is prolonged and difficult? When we've tired of the interim pastor, we move to a new church and cause the same catastrophe. We're like a clandestine congregation seeking missile. The rulers of ancient Rome probably would have worshiped us, but I'm not proud of that. It's obviously not intentional, and I really don't think we do anything tangible to cause it. But there it is, and not a secret anymore.

So I learned a couple things this Sunday from the Worship Pastor's sermon (since there is no senior pastor -- and if you're reading this Jason, you did a great job). The first thing I learned during the sermon was that my head may or may not be too large for a cutesy bob haircut. No, the sermon didn't cover topics directly related to my hair, but my husband and I had a discussion that went like this during the service:


Me:  "Are you sleeping?"
H:  "No, I can listen with my eyes closed."
Me:  "Uh huh." (eye roll) "I like her haircut", (pointing at a cute girl a row ahead of us) "do you think I'd look okay with a haircut that short?"
H: (in deep thought for a few seconds)  "Her face isn't like yours."
Me:  "Right, but lots of people have a haircut like hers and they don't all have her face."
H:  "But her face is shorter than yours, you have to have the right proportions for a haircut."
Me:  "Which proportions aren't right?"
H:  "I don't know. For example, someone with a big head wouldn't look good with that haircut."
Me:  "So now I have a big head?"
H:  "No, that's not what I said." (frustrated sigh)
Me:  "Never mind. You better just start praying."



The second thing I learned from the sermon is that my husband and I both have defective personalities.  Okay, that's not exactly what the pastor said, but you'll understand my logic if you read the case in point conversation above. Call it high-strung, high-urgency, or high-drama; those are a few of the terms he used to characterize the type of thinking that people like us do. And his point was, we should pray first, before we worry. Always pray first, and it will quiet the worry and bring answers. But it's hard for a high-drama person to start with prayer, because our brain wants to worry. It's just how our brains are wired. It's why I asked my husband about the haircut, and why he analyzed it in a brutally honest way.

So, next time I get a crazy idea like hair-chopping, I'll pray about it before I analyze it. Thinking about it quietly (I guess you could call it praying, even though I wouldn't really bother God with these petty issues) I decided the bob is a dumb idea. I'll pray about the big things too, because if it can work for momentous decisions such as haircuts, certainly it's even better for the little stuff.