Ahhh. . .the crisp crunch of leaves underfoot, the smell of hot apple cider carried on the wind, the appearance of the elusive, upper lip caterpillar.  It could only mean one thing.

Movember is here.

For those of you unfamiliar with Movember, let me be the first, although I’m sure I won’t be the last, to highlight the holiday season that we have now found ourselves thrust into.

It is a season of testosterone.

Hairy, Furry, Fuzzy Testosterone.

It is the month where men everywhere sprout facial hair to spur on prostate health awareness.

And men everywhere have embraced their inner, um, fuzz with the same creativity and care that love struck artists have used to paint women.  I’m talking hours shaping, primping, and grooming the space of face found between nose and neck.

Yeah, it’s kinda a big deal.

And the styles range from the wooly upper lip caterpillar famously sported by Tom Selleck to Scottish long beards to Biker Chops . . . and yes, everything in between.  There’s the Evil Villan ‘stache, the Artist, the Gotee, the Hulk Hogan, The Zorro, the 5 0’clock shadow, and the list goes on and on.

Men have taken facial hair to a whole new category of creativity.

And I’ve got to say, I’m feeling a little inspired.

Don’t worry dad, I’m not going to embarrass you by showing up at your work with a fake mustache glued to my face.

Or am I?

But it has gotten me thinking about originality and creativity in sharing a common message.  I mean who would have thunk that it was possible to do facial hair a thousand and one different ways?

Jesus, undeterred, went right ahead and gave his charge: “God authorized and commanded me to commission you: Go out and train everyone you meet, far and near, in this way of life, marking them by baptism in the threefold name: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Then instruct them in the practice of all I have commanded you. I’ll be with you as you do this, day after day after day, right up to the end of the age.”

Matthew 28:18-19 (The Message)

So Jesus gives us a general overhead message that needs to be shared.

That he is the hope of the world.

He is here to heal us.

He is here to deliver us.

He wants to be our closest friend.

But then, he just kinda leaves it open ended.

It’s like getting a bunch of guys together at poker night and telling them that they need to raise awareness about prostate cancer. . . oh, and they should use facial hair to do it.

And I think we’ve panicked at times because our spiritual facial hair just doesn’t grow the way that that guy’s does.

Or we have these weird patches where we can’t grow hair and so it was just never our fate to grow Biker Chops.

And so we bail out on sharing who Jesus is to us, because we aren’t very good at talking to people.

But we can’t miss out on our part because our fur grows a different way.

But maybe, just maybe, you’re an artist and your paintings show Jesus gave you hope out of depression, maybe you use your tattoos to share your story of how God saved you from a hard core addiction, maybe you write poetry about no longer being an anorexic because you found absolute, unconditional approval in God, maybe you write a blog every week about how anal you used to be and how God is continually teaching you how to chill out.

Talking about Jesus used to freak me out. 

Not because I was embarrassed of him but because I was always wondering if I was sharing my faith “the right way”.

But besides loving Jesus, you start by simply by caring about other people and wanting them to  know and experience how much God loves them.  And then you just kinda let it flow through whatever follicle pattern you’ve been given.  For me, it’s writing, because God and the rest of the world knows that it is nearly impossible to string together a complete thought, let alone have a conversation with 3 kids under 5 hanging on your legs saying “Mommy” a million times in succession.

But whatever talking about Jesus looks like for you, it was never meant to be awkward.

Take a deep breath and remember, your mission is not to sell Jesus.

Movemeber would be seriously cheapened if it was all a scam to sell prostate insurance (that’s actually a funny thought though).

You aren’t a pimp and Jesus isn’t something to be pushed on people.

Talking about Jesus should be like Movember. . . natural, creative, and fun.

 

Photo Credit:”Cigar” by Ryan McGuire permission through C.C.