A symbol of hope.

During the month of December I wasn’t going to post anything except the daily Advent posts. I was going to keep my posts simple, seasonal, and spiritual. But something came up yesterday that just demands my immediate commentary!

Before I begin ranting, let me just say that I don’t mind all the old age issues – the gray hair, the aching joints, the generous girth, the sagging jowls, the fading eyesight, not even the jokes and snickers from all those whipper-snappers who are younger than I am. I expected them. But yesterday’s old age harbinger was just too much!

After an afternoon cracker snack I brushed my chin to remove any lingering crumbs. One “crumb” wouldn’t brush away. So I pulled out the old lady mirror I keep in my desk drawer … you know, the one that has the 5x magnification … took a peek, and to my horror, there it was – a chin hair! Not just a fine little wispy thing … No, this was a long, curly, gross bona fide old lady chin hair! How long had that thing been there? How many people had been repulsed by the sight of it? How come I can’t grow eyebrows and eyelashes since chemo, but I can manufacture a big fat chin hair?

Well now, this blog is supposed to be about finding hope for real life. Where is the hope in chin hair? None! There is no hope in chin hair … chin hair is real life, real ugly life! Then I remembered that hope was residing in my bathroom drawer, where a variety of tweezers were waiting to assist me in the fight. But wait, that would mean exposing that ugly hair to the world on my way to the car. No, there must be hope hidden somewhere behind the closed door of my office. So despite the stiff joints, I discovered hope in the grip of my gnarled thumb and fore finger, grabbed that nasty hair and jerked it right off my face! Amazing the strength that can be found in the face (Pardon the pun!) of adversity!

Pretty silly, huh? Getting all jacked up about something as minor as a chin hair. But that’s what we have a tendency to do, isn’t it? We’re confronted by some little annoyance, and we allow it to become a huge obstacle – something that overwhelms us, consumes our thoughts, clouds our day, and plunges us into some dark place. Why do we do that? We don’t need to let those little annoyances loom over us, we just need to see them for what they are, gather the hope and courage and strength to pluck them out of the way, and move on. Oh they’ll probably be back. Like that nasty chin hair will no doubt regenerate, reproduce, and reappear to plague me again in the future. But now I’ll be on my guard, watching for it; and I know I can conquer that silly thing and all its cohorts!

The same is true for those other annoyances that keep showing up. We just need to see them for what they are – just annoyances – and recognize that there is hope to eliminate them. But in the process, we could benefit from those annoying experiences by asking ourselves a couple of questions:

What is God teaching me through this annoying experience? “And we know that all that happens to us is working for our good if we love God and are fitting into his plans.” Romans 8:28 (The Living Bible)

How can I grow from the struggle to overcome this annoyance? Remember, it’s in struggling to emerge from its cocoon that a butterfly gains the strength to fly!

How can my experience help others? In 2 Corinthians 1:3-5 Paul encourages us to encourage others who are going through similar circumstances. “All praise to the God and Father of our Master, Jesus the Messiah! Father of all mercy! God of all healing counsel! He comes alongside us when we go through hard times, and before you know it, he brings us alongside someone else who is going through hard times so that we can be there for that person just as God was there for us. We have plenty of hard times that come from following the Messiah, but no more so than the good times of his healing comfort—we get a full measure of that, too.” (The Message)

So annoyances can become opportunities … opportunities to learn, grow, and help others.

Frankly, I don’t think there’s any deep lesson to be learned from the whole chin hair ordeal. Except, I did get a neat, albeit gross, illustration for my post today! I hope you’ve gotten a chuckle or two from my story, but mostly I hope you’ll recognize that annoyances are opportunities to see God working in and through you, even in the small stuff.

Got some “chin hair” stories to share? When have you been faced by a circumstance that seemed overwhelming only to discover that it was an opportunity that God could use to grow you and encourage someone else? Feel free to share in the comments.

Now back to our regularly scheduled Advent posts . . . .