STOP AND THINK
Words to live by. Years ago, while serving as an evangelist., I was invited to speak at an Apostolic church in what I will call an "unnamed city". I was young and unlearned (as opposed to being old and unlearned, as I am now) and was ready to fill the shoes of some of the great evangelists of days gone by (so, so I thought). I "felt led" one night to preach on holiness . Actually, I had something to prove. I was a "new evangelist" at this church and, as all "new evangelists" know, somewhere in the meeting you've got to prove to everybody (especially the pastor), that you are a bonifide "100% One God, Apostolic, Jesus Name, Tongue Talkin' Holiness or Hell Preacher of the Full Gospel of Jesus Christ". So, that was my night. I was gonna preach on Holiness. So, and as we all do (come on, admit it), during the song service I looked around in my judgmental, self-righteous place of "authority", to survey the crowd to pick up some good points for my sermon. There was a man... his hair was a little too long. There was a woman with exposed elbows.
But there... right there near in the ails in the middle of the building was what I zeroed in on. A woman with hair shorter than mine! So... I did what any good holiness preacher would do, I focused on this "harlot" and spent the biggest part of my sermon declaring how sinful this or any woman was for cutting their hair off to look like a man. (Oh, I didn't single her out, but she knew.. and everyone else knew, I was preaching to her).
It was unusually quiet that night for an Apostolic Church, but, hey, I must be steppin' on some toes, and bless God, if they don't like it... so I just lambasted this woman even harder. Until she got up and walked out crying. Boy, howdy, did I feel good about myself. Got the devil mad enough to make this woman walk out. Man, was I a preacher!
After the service, I found out why it was so quiet. That woman was a member of that church. She was saved as a little girl there... had been baptized in Jesus Name and was filled with the Holy Ghost. She had never, ever cut her hair.
She had cancer. Lost all her hair in radiation Treatments. Her cancer was in remission and her hair was just growing back. I didn't know that. Because I didn't stop to think. And I cried.
Whats the point?
Yesterday, my wife cut her hair. For the first time since she came to the Lord. She doesn't (nor do I) condemn those who cut their hair. It has been her choice to maintain the Pentecostal tradition (and thats all it is) of not cutting her hair. But yesterday, she cut her hair. Because she has cancer and her hair is coming out. She cried. And so did I.
Whats my point...
Nothing. Except to say, STOP AND THINK.
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