As I rushed about, trying to get ready for work on time, I began to feel very irritated by my new haircut. This new “do” requires a bit of work that I’m just not used to. My once long locks are now too short to pull the old “ponytail” trick, so each day, until this grows out a bit, I am forced to fix it…and I seriously did not have time to play with it today! There was water splashed all over the bathroom, clothes wadded up in the floor, I’m still barefoot, the dogs haven’t been let out yet, and I’m really hoping my keys are where they’re supposed to be because I don’t remember seeing them when I rushed past my purse earlier. Ugh! It’s gonna be one of THOSE mornings!
I did a quick time-check as I finished blow-drying and I knew I wouldn’t be able to do everything the way I wanted to. The waves in my hair don’t work so well with the new cut, so a straightener is required. But not having enough time for all that, I compromised and only straightened the top layer. If the longer, top layer looks smooth, it can hide most of the shorter, flippy, tangled mess that lies beneath.
You’re already there aren’t you? Yeah. It didn’t take me long to get there either as God began to deal with me right there in front of the mirror. He reminded me of how conscientious we can be about our outward appearances. We want things to look good on the surface so people won’t realize what a tangled mess we have underneath. We don’t even want God looking too long at that stuff because we know what THAT means! But here He was, looking, and prodding; as I huffed and puffed and griped and pouted about my stupid hair…I knew God was telling me, my hair was not the issue.
The bigger issue was that I spent time doing things that didn’t matter instead of focusing on the more important tasks at hand. I did the easy, the fun, the distracting, the feel-good things and I avoided the tedious, the messy, the difficult, and the important. This was not only evident in my morning routine, where I often allow myself to be distracted by the most ridiculous things, but it was evident in my spiritual life. How often do I allow the urgent to take precedence over the important, the feel good to take over the growth, and the easy to take over the victory?
These are the tangled roots that lay beneath the smooth surface that I prefer for people to see. These are the things that will keep resurfacing at the most inopportune moments and unsuspecting places until I finally stop…take an honest look, and resolve to finally do something differently.
God is so good to take those potential meltdown moments and turn them into teaching opportunities. No, I didn’t get ready any more quickly, but I did resolve to make some changes and, hopefully, that will alleviate the recurrence of these crazy mornings! But more than that, I came back to God later, after calming down and making the proper time for Him, and I did discuss the deeper issues with Him. I did talk about some of the “messy” that I’ve been avoiding. And though “combing through” those tangles isn’t going to be easy, I feel better just having decided to finally do something…to stop avoiding…and to allow God to work on me some more.
220 Gal 