Yesterday was mine and my husband’s “second” 21st anniversary. I say second because in 2002 we were first married by a JOP, and then later that same year we also had a formal ceremony. Over the years we tend to celebrate the first one more than the second, but it’s always fun to use the second as an excuse to pamper.

SO… in case you’re wondering what lavish gift or vacation or surprise we pampered one another with this year… we each had a late afternoon appointment to get our hair cut. Yep, haircuts! I know, that’s like really amazing, right?!! Would it help if I said we planned on dinner afterwards? Okay, kidding aside, the haircut appointments is where the day really got interesting and took a sudden turn in a direction neither one of us were expecting.

My appointment was scheduled at 4:30 and my husband’s was right afterwards. We both have been going to the same beloved gal who has been cutting our hair for a number of years, like seriously more than I remember. I think it was maybe 2004 or 2005 when we first began going to her, so yeah, that long! She’s beautiful, all together lovely, and always does a great job. This is why we were completely off guard and taken back a bit by what we saw. Customers were stacked up, waiting, and she was zipping from one place to another, talking in a rapid mumble, had a wild look on her face, and kept disappearing in the back for several minutes at a time. She was forgetful, easily distracted, and often wasn’t able to finish a whole sentence. On top of all that, she had lost a considerable amount of weight since the last time we were in. We had never seen her this way before so it was both alarming and concerning.

Lord, I began to pray silently, how can I minister to her? She is behaving as if she was on speed! We soon learned there was a lot of extenuating circumstances that all played into what we were seeing, and my heart ached for her. When it finally came my turn for the cut (about 6:30), my husband went to the drug store to pick up some much needed vitamins for her along with some Epsom salt to help heal a bad wound on her foot. I was desperately seeking the right words to speak to this dear friend of ours and feeling convicted at the same time. After all these years the realization that we have had very few serious conversations with her about Jesus began to sink in. I began thinking she could have died and we would have missed our opportunity to minister LIFE in the meantime.

She began to section my hair for a highlight, so I reminded her I was there for only a cut but had planned to get a highlight the following month. She asked if she could quickly highlight the top of my hair for free, as a gift for us having to wait. I knew it was because she was in process of another highlight and likely needed to go rinse the solution off the other gal’s head. “Sure!” I heard myself say. Oh my, long story short, this decision caused us to be there another 2 1/2 hours, until 9pm.

God isn’t calling us to be comfortable, He’s calling us to be faithful.

Louis Giglio

The sad thing is, I kept looking at my watch and accounting for all the possible time we had left before she would be finally finished, thinking about our dinner plans. All I could think of was to RUN! I wanted to get out of there and go back to my little peaceful comfortable world. Then I heard the question in me, is 5 hours of your time worth a soul? Ouch!

What does it mean to us to carry the name of Jesus? The Church doesn’t like to do messy, but this world is messy! I came face to face with the question: Am I a good Samaritan or am I one of the ones who would gladly walk by? I was being confronted by my own Christianity.

Our friend needed and wanted to talk with us, and we did pour out words of hope and life as well as instructions for foot healing & health, but I left still shocked faced, pondering the whole experience. Praying over her and thinking about her this morning, I know now that I should have commanded the demons to be still so that she could have received our words easier. I felt wholly inadequate to meet her need, but I know I have a BIG and GOOD God who can, and I learned some valuable lessons for “next time”.

I also realized as I was watching her over the hours we were there that I kept reacting to what I saw rather than being proactive. I cried out to the Lord! I don’t want to run FROM, I want to run TO. I want to be so confident in the words of life I KNOW I have, words that will impact and change lives, that I bring Heaven down so the person I am ministering to can receive a holy kiss.

Lord Jesus, I prayed, can we try again until there is no more ME in the way of YOU? I see why it is so important to be filled with You. Not for my name’s sake, not for my glory, not for my comfort or reputation. For others. So I can pour You out onto others in such a pure form that nothing comes out but You. I want to be a worker in your harvest! Amen