Shampoo with a Brain

I heard an advertisement on TV that caught my attention on Sunday morning as I was getting ready for church. The advertisement was for a shampoo that would lessen the amount of gray hair the more you used it. It was touted as "shampoo with a brain." The ad suggested using the shampoo until you reached the desired ratio of color to gray. My guess is it would last for a certain amount of time and then you would need to reapply to get rid of the gray and add more color.

Now I must admit that this is a rather interesting way for men to reduce the amount of gray hair they are showing. I, however, fall into the other camp when it comes to gray hair. I am one of those who follow the old saying, "As long as it doesn't turn loose, it can turn whatever color it wants!" Not that there is anything wrong with changing the color of your hair because I know plenty of folks who do it, but when you change the color of your hair what are you doing? You are changing the appearance of what the world sees of you.

As I listened to the advertisement I couldn't help but think about how this shampoo does to hair what we try to do in the spiritual areas of our life. In essence, hair dye or gray reducing shampoo does nothing more than hide the real person behind a color that will eventually fade, revealing the real person once again. The color covers up who we really are. We are all guilty of "coloring" the spiritual side of our lives to show the world something different than who we really are. This is never as true as when some people speak with a pastor. As a pastor, you get used to people bringing up God once they find out what you do. It's usually the most obvious when it is someone who doesn't know you. The person who was swearing about someone in one breath and then (after finding out a pastor is there) starts praising God in the next. I strive really hard as a pastor to not allow myself to be differentiated from the rest of the church. Although it is impossible to completely do it, I work to show who I am apart from the calling God has placed on my life. But regardless of how hard I try at it, I still see people "coloring" their spiritual performance in front of me and, at times, other folks in the church. It would be much simpler and much less exhausting to simply show the real you, rather than hiding who you really are behind a mask.

Years ago the band Casting Crowns had a hit song that spoke to this very issue in the lives of Christians. The song was titled Stained Glass Masquerade. As you can imagine, the song was about the masks Christians wear to hide who they really are. The problem is the song was spot on to the actions of Christians for generations. What followers of Christ need to do is be authentic in who they are spiritually and not "color" the person they show to the world. Now I'm not saying you bare your soul to the world and put all your problems out there for the world to see. But you can show the world that you are a real person, with real problems, and in need of help from a very real God. This is what is missing in our world today. Christians living like people who don't have it all together and who really need God's help every day.

My encouragement to you today is to stop "coloring" who you are spiritually. Whether it is in front of your pastor, your friends at church, or someone else, show them who you really are. You'll find it is way less exhausting and far more rewarding to show the world the real you.


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