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Hoosier United Methodist News Archives
| Hoosier United Methodist News |
December 2002 |
My Witness:
At The Barbershop -- An Awakening
By Harold Leininger
Did you know one of the church's greatest opportunities for touching people with God's love is the barber shop? It has been so for centuries. It is still so today. Most people in our society, rich or poor, old or young, has his/her hair groomed. For generations the Leiningers went to the same barbershop in Akron, Ind..
I, too, grew up going regularly to Weachter's Barber Shop. Through the years as long as Weachter's was still in business, I would return to Akron. Both of my sons had their first hair cuts at the hands of Beanie Weachter. Five generations of us benefited from all the truths and the fiction we learned there. Like a bartender, the barber observes a cross section of human life.
In late afternoon on a Monday, I went for a haircut. While in the chair my former neighbor came in to the shop. He shared the grizzly details of the divorce hearing he had just endured which ended 32 years of marriage. As I looked at him and listened to his pain, my barber who is also in the process of divorce expressed, "my children are my primary focus but they are not the center of my life." I realized once again, I no longer live in 1952. I live in 2002.
However, some things remain the same. The barber/stylist is still quite willing to share his/her own take on life's joys and problems. In turn, those skilled in using shears still listen to the episodic events that trouble, as well as bless their patron's lives.
Yes, I still find my visits to the "red and white pole" refreshing, not only cosmetically but therapeutically. I imagine if Jesus were still walking this earth, he would spend time in barber shops where society's "Steel Magnolias" seek to find meaning in the struggles of everyday life. The Good News is this: Every time you go to the barber shop the spirit of the living Jesus goes with you. As you visit, he whispers, "Do not judge, and you will not be judged; do not condemn, and you will not be condemned; forgive and you will be forgiven; give and it will be given unto you." -- Luke 6:37-38.
Please remember the next time you go to the barbershop or hair salon, that you have a unique opportunity to touch others with God's love!
Last updated on 01/14/2004The Rev. Harold Leininger is senior pastor at Calvary UMC in Brownsburg.