New Looks and Outlooks
It's always a bit nerve-wracking when you find yourself in need of a hair cut but also in a foreign space. My journeys up to the border of New South Wales and Queensland the last couple of weeks has left me with scraggly, sun bleached hair and long growth to my undercut - so much so that that dreaded appointment day set in sooner than expected.
I like my hairdresser back home. She charges me a cheeky $20 because I model for her, and we are consistently working on reshaping my hair as it grows. So it's hard to share with someone totally new to you the vision for your hair. This may sound quite self-obsessed, but you know where I'm coming from. You also have to establish a new relationship right there with that person, or you sit awkwardly for however long it takes for them to master the shape of your noggin and then overcharge you.
It started when I looked up a hairdresser in Coolangatta. I was told good things about it, but was wary of the fact that they wanted to charge considerably more purely for the fact that I was a woman (even though I have what you could call a men's style haircut). I wandered in with a friend the following day and rather than admitting to me that they were somewhat discriminatory, the girl kept parroting the prices. No loss to me, I thought. The vibe from the place was cold and quite image-obsessed. I just wanted a place I could yak on with someone and enjoy their company, followed by celebrating their talent.
We popped into a barber shop further up the street and stuck our heads in. It was old-themed and a couple of young men worked there. They looked up to see two young women and I asked confidently "do you cut women's hair?" The owner smiled with surprise and responded "yeah, for sure!"
And that, my friends, was the start of a beautiful relationship. When we popped back over half an hour later, the barber was sitting out the front chugging down a salad sandwich and an iced ginger tea. He explained that he was no longer drinking coffee and that he was two months sober from alcohol, cigarettes, drugs and now coffee. Immediately I could tell God was working in his life, and had lead Raquel and I to him on this day.
As he cut my hair, we talked about mental health, about how being a blessing allows us to be blessed, and how we need grace in this world that rarely affords it to us. The barber explained that in sobering up he had to remove himself from his toxic friends circle and was on a journey of connecting with others not for the purpose of self-comfort but to connect with those who his past image would have restrained him from connecting with. I was impressed because as Christians we face this dilemma, and yet he was striding straight towards God's plan for his life without even recognising it. As I talked him through some thought processes that we have, and some ideas on how to better mental and spiritual wellbeing, he joked "I think I should be paying you rather than the other way round!" I insisted that he be paid for his craft, even though a half hour job took two hours because we were working through a lot of stuff. I told him "this is my calling in my life, God has given me a stable job to cover me in my basic needs and I get a thrill of joy from sharing outside of that role just for the sake of others." With that statement, the barber looked at me and smiled. It was what he needed to hear, he remarked. It was what his heart had been leaning towards. It was a confirming thought to his own. It was Holy Spirit breathed.
"I wish you were staying past Sunday, I want to steal your brain and talk through stuff more with you." I grabbed his number off him with the intention of introducing people like-minded who he can develop relationships with.
With a new look for me began a new outlook for this man. More than that, it confirmed that we cannot limit or define the way God will use us. This whole week I have been passing by people, connecting with them and passing them on to other workers for God's mission of love and light, and it brings the greatest joy. Do what God says you can, not what you think He says you can. We need a new outlook on His providence and guiding, and He gives that opportunity every day with every soul we come across - you just have to be looking for it!
God "called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before times eternal." (2 Timothy 1:9). Run with God and His purpose, and you will be blown away by the fulfilment in doing so.
