My hair can smell fear.

It has sensed how, slowly, over these lockdown months, I’ve lost the upper hand.

On Wednesday morning, things came to a head. (Ha ha.)

I was getting ready to record next Sunday’s preach. My hairdresser and her salon-quality flat iron were, sadly, nowhere. It was me against the mane. I wielded sprays and gels and combs and clips and my own hairdryer and GHD, but the curls and the frizz and the general wildness revolted and would not submit.

The *enormous irony* of all this was the passage I was about to preach on. 1 Peter 3. It’s ok. Laugh at me.

‘Don’t be concerned about the outward beauty of fancy hairstyles, expensive jewellery, or beautiful clothes. You should clothe yourselves instead with the beauty that comes from within, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is so precious to God.’

Right?!

So while I was repenting and trying another up-style and rehearsing my sermon and begging Jesus to help me not to ‘be concerned’ about my *LACK* of a ‘fancy hairstyle’, He reminded me that sometimes our ordinary looks are the soft invitation other ordinary folks need to draw near to the perfection of our holy, extraordinary God.

I’d also borrowed a friend’s shirt because lapel mics are a thing and you can’t wear just anything because the whole lights-camera-action thing is also a thing and I was feeling generally vulnerable and insecure and God reminded me too that, really, I wear the borrowed robes of His righteousness, and He hides me behind His glory.

Then on Friday morning, I read this, from Psalm 39.

LORD, remind me how brief my time on earth will be. Remind me that my days are numbered – how fleeting my life is. You have made my life no longer than the width of my hand. My entire lifetime is just a moment to You; at best, each of us is but a breath. We are merely moving shadows, and all our busy rushing ends in nothing. We heap up wealth, not knowing who will spend it. And so, Lord, where do I put my hope? My only hope is in You.

I (over)share all this because I’m probably not the only one who needs reminding that –

External beauty makes an impression.

Internal beauty makes a difference.

And in difficult, complicated, uncertain times – like right now – we need difference makers.

I wonder at the kind of difference we might make if we aimed for the unfading inside-out kind of beauty that brings a holy stillness to the swirling chaos of current reality. If we spent at least as much time straightening out our souls with Scripture, as we spend straightening our hair with heat.

I’m probably also not the only one who needs reminding that God uses the ordinary.

Not one of us is more than just a breath, and He blows through us, for His Kingdom and glory.

. . .

Happy weekend! Heap tons and tons of love on all the DADS!

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