Does your haircut bring glory to God?
By: Missionary Team
After seven long months of an unrelenting battle, AKA allowing my hair to grow out, the time had come to relinquish my fictitious dream of a man bun. And so the luscious locks, which once boasted of a mane so glorious, were no more. This intense battle of growing out my hair, which seemingly had no horizon of hope, had come to an anticlimactic conclusion. The mane was no more... it had fallen, and the time to beg for mercy had long passed. And thus, from the ashes of such a massacre of utter beauty, rose... a short haircut. Why do I muse to you of this story, this tragedy so tragic? For how can it not help but draw a tear? I muse, for it begs the question, did my locks, so magnificent as they were, bring glory to God?
All that we have was given to us by God, and at the end of the day, everything we do must be to His glory. God gave us everything, how could we not give Him everything in return? For if we are to live this life as we ought, offering all that we are and have as a “living sacrifice” of love to Him, this is what must happen (Romans 12:1). What about the small things that seem to have no importance and don’t affect others? Whether or not my old haircut brought glory to God, brings up this important question: Must we give even those little things to God? As Mother Teresa, echoing St. Therese of Lisieux’s little way, famously said, “Not all of us can do great things, but we can do small things with great love.” In other words, what a gift we’ve been given in being able to do even small things for God’s Glory. Even the small things, if offered to God with Great love, can console His heart and bring Him Joy. Let us not waste anything then! Let us “not be saints by half” as St. Therese says. “Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God.” 1 Cor 10:31.
Every little thing we truly do for God's Glory is such a precious gift to Our Lord. If we go into the kitchen, let us go in and say, “Now I go into the kitchen to do Your will and to give You glory.” It doesn’t matter where we are, we can offer whatever we are doing for God's glory. Yes, we can praise our Lord in the Chapel, but we can also praise the Lord on the toilet. I’m not even kidding! Have you ever prayed to our Lord by just going to the bathroom? Going to the bathroom can become a prayer if we do it for God’s Glory. Sleeping can become a prayer if we do it for God’s glory and thank Him for the gift it is. See! Literally, anything that isn’t sinful can be but to a beautiful use, God’sGlory and Praise. Next time you're doing some mundane task or something that seems of little importance remember you can make it a prayer and offer even that up to our Lord.
Do you remember the story of the widow's offering in the Bible? In it we see a beautiful example of this in scripture: “Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others. They all gave out of their wealth; but she, out of her poverty, put in everything—all she had to live on.”(Mark 12:43-44)
See, even this widow’s tine offering brought so much joy to God! The widow gave “all she had to live on” in other words, all she was. We can do this if we remember how small we are and how big God is. If we do that then we'll see how everything we could ever offer to God, even our lives, are so small but so beautiful. If given to Him in humility, it becomes such a great gift. And even more beautiful if we offer it the Christ our King threw His queen Mary. It’s crazy that our God is so good as to accept our imperfect gifts whether that be a haircut or something of way greater significance.
