The Makeover

An article I just wrote for the Onething Source web page. It’s a site geared to help provide youth and young adult leaders with tools as they lead their young people.

Intimacy or closeness with God is the most wonderful thing one can experience in their Christian walk. However it can be one of the hardest things to procure. Why you ask? We hate what He loves; ourselves. He loves us so much that He crushes His son with pleasure, and sends him to die for us because He loves us. (Is. 53:10; John 3:16) Yet we can’t understand how this is possible because we don’t hold a high opinion of ourselves.

In leadership, specifically with young adults, it’s very hard to get this point across to young twenty somethings. About a year ago I had an intern who was struggling with prayer and understanding who he was before the Lord. I had spent the better part of a month praying for him, counseling him, and reading every scripture the Bible could produce, to convince him that God loved him. I pooled every resource I could think of to try to get him to understand the freedom he had in Christ’s atoning work on the cross. Until one day I had a grand idea.

His name was Jordan, and by his own admission, was dressed and kept to look like a homeless man. He had a strange, unmanaged, scraggily red beard. He wore the same old holey track jacket every day. He never dared to do his hair in any way shape or form. He also wore the same pair of dirty jeans, and shoes every day. All in all he looked… well like a homeless guy. His appearance is important becauseit was what sparked my grand idea.

It was during our weekly apartment meeting that I had the epiphany. I stormed in to his apartment, “Where’s Jordan!” I called him and everyone in the apartment out and sat them down in the apartment. “Jordan I know why you can’t receive God’s love! You dress like a slob, because you don’t like yourself!” Jordan responded in agreement but curious as to what this had to do with anything. I asked him why he never took care of his appearance. He told me because he didn’t care. I then told him the reason why he didn’t care was because he didn’t like himself enough to look presentable. He was mildly stunned, “you are probably right.” “Jordan” I said, “We are going to give you a makeover” Never in my life have a seen 7 pretty manly guys get so girly in one instant. It was like “Dude! Yeah! Let’s do it bro!”

I went to some friends with money and asked if they would be willing to donate toward the cause. I got about $200 raised for the project. We all crammed into my truck, and off we went. Our first stop was the salon. Yes the salon! All eight guys and myself went barging into the quiet salon full of women in curlers. You would have thought we were outlaws busting into a bank in an old western the way they gasped as we walked in. “Can I help you??” Said the head stylist in a quivering and confused voice. I told her we were here to make over my friend Jordan. She looked at him with bewilderment. You would have thought I just asked her to climb Everest without an oxygen mask. “Sure… uh… yeah we can change his look.” With that she shampooed his hair what seemed like four times before she began to work on styling him. She styled his beard, and styled his hair. He actually looked like an attractive young man, and not like he was begging for his last meal. Then it was off to the department store.

Truth be told, I had never been to a department store with a group of guys. Most of my history in department stores had been spent waiting for a family member, or a lady friend. I had never walked into the clothing area with eight guys, picked out some outfits and excitedly sent one of them into the dressing room to try them on. However this was the exact scenario I found myself in. The sales reps also seemed befuddled by the whole situation not knowing quite what to do. Jordan was a bit reluctant to try stuff on, but our excitement egged him on in to the dressing room. He picked out a few outfits and we left. We wanted to get him ready before the class I taught later that evening.

Did God care about Jordan’s appearance? I don’t think so. I think Jordan could very easily have lead a very successful life in the love of God. But God love being great wasn’t the problem; it was Jordan’s reluctance to receive it because of his low self esteem. Later that evening in class I had him wait outside the classroom until I announced him. I called him in, and everyone stood up and applauded. Telling him how handsome he was, and how much they cared about him. His face lit up. Not sure if he cried, but he was obviously moved. For the next couple of weeks he actually began to receive God’s love. He slowly went back to his old raggedy clothes, but there was something different about him when he did. Changing his appearance has forced him to change his view of himself. He realized that he had worth, that he had value.

It was an interesting experiment. Again I don’t think it’s necessary to change someone’s appearance for them to know God’s love. But I do think it’s necessary to get young people to look outside themselves and their self deprecation. It’s necessary to help them get out those obstacles that keep that from receiving the gift of Christ’s love. In Jordan’s case it was his self esteem. For others it could be a myriad of things. As we lead and encourage young people in the grace of God it is important to be attentive to those things in those we lead. It is important to help them identify those things that keep them from resting in the grace of Christ. For in that grace, in that love, we then are able to procure an intimacy ye a closeness with the living God.