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LONG-HAIRED FREAKS

by linzy bruno
3/24/2023 / Short Stories

Jay entered The Eagle’s Nest Tavern and sat in his usual seat at the bar. He calmly sipped his rum and Coke; keeping his eyes fixed on the door for Micky and Bo to show up, as the trio had special plans for their usual Friday night jaunt. Beginning to lose patience, he chugged the remainder of his drink and sauntered over to the pool table. Just as he began chalking up his favorite cue, Micky appeared in the doorway. Jay motioned him over to the table; his long flowing brown hair taking on a crimson glow from the overhead lighting, as he leaned in for a shot.

Micky raised his arm; acknowledging Jay, as he approached the bar for a couple of shots of whiskey to take to the table. “Hey Jay!” He shouted, as he handed Jay his drink.

“Hey Mick. Hey, where’s Bo?” He inquired; looking around.

“He’ll be here in a minute. I just talked to him, like an hour ago.”

“Well I sure hope he makes it,” Jay replied.

Moments later, Bo approached the table, with his usual ear-to-ear smile.

The three put their arms around one another. Micky got his shirt button caught in Bo’s manbun and without thinking, violently jerked his arm away.

“HEY! That hurt!” Bo shouted, but then quickly pulled himself together, as not to harm his tough-guy image.

“Sorry!” Micky said mockingly.

But Bo just punched his shoulder; smiling uncontrollably.

“Come on you two! I thought we were going to the club!”

“Yeah, we’re going,” they both agreed; following Jay’s lead out of the tavern.

As soon as they got outside, Micky unexpectedly threw his hair backward; hitting Jay and completely covering his face.

“Hahahaha,” they all broke out in hysteria. With three bellyfuls of Jack Daniels; the incident seemed much funnier than their usual hair mishaps.

For several more years this went on, with Jay, Micky and Bo behaving in this juvenile manner, with drinking remaining their favorite activity.

But now, the trio was beginning to grow quite tired of this lifestyle and all three began wondering if there could possibly be more than drinking and carousing, as possible activities to fill their weekends.

Then one sunny afternoon, as Jay finally arose from passing out, he looked out his window, at the beauty he so often ignored, and he fell to his knees in sad confusion. “Why am I wasting my life?” He cried out to no one at all. At the same time, Bo and Micky also awoke that afternoon with similar emotions suddenly ravishing their hearts and minds. None of them being from stable or solid backgrounds, they found themselves naturally drawn to one another, and at times, even confided in one another.

Suddenly Jay remembered that it was the day that Micky would turn forty and he picked up the phone to give him a call, but just as he was about to dial, both Micky and Bo showed up at his front door.

“Come in,” Jay shouted.

“Happy birthday Mick! You’re forty now! Gettin’ old Buddy!” he continued shouting at them.

“Yeah, yeah, yeah,” he replied. “I’d rather not think about it.”

“Well, we are all starting to get up their in age…….And I’ve been thinking, maybe we should stop going to the bars and hanging out all weekend doing no good for anybody and think of something else….some better way to spend our time,” Jay proposed.

The two just nodded in utter and total shock, with their eyes closed and their heads spinning.

“So, you don’t wanna hang out anymore?” Bo asked; his face twisting.

“Sure, of course. YES! But I just wanna find something else for us to do, that’s all…Something good, or helpful. Ya know positive!”

“Well, we could start going to church. There’s one right down the street from here,” Micky added.

“Oh, yeah…..Whadaya you think Bo?”

“It’s not a bad idea.”

“Okay, starting this Sunday, we’ll all meet here at…..What time do you think church starts?”

“Well there’s a sign outside on the lawn that says they have services at nine-thirty.”

“Nine-thirty in the morning?” Bo and Jay replied, as they looked at one another in shock and disbelief.

Jay spent the remainder of that week wondering if this was real or some sort of crazy long-ended joke. Were they merely playing a game of chicken or was this really going to happen? He couldn’t help but wonder, but he found out that following Sunday, as Micky and Bo showed up at nine-fifteen at his house, but he was still asleep.

“JAY! Wake up!” They shouted at him.

“Oh no!” Jay shouted, as he scrambled to his feet. “I knew I would do this,” he added, as he quickly dressed.

“I didn’t even have time to comb my hair!” He exclaimed, as they piled into Bo’s car and quickly drove off.

The trio sat in the back and just tried to take everything in. They spoke not a word. This continued for the next two months of Sundays.

Then one morning; getting ready, Jay found himself oddly looking forward to the sermon.

At this point, some of the others were beginning to take notice of their presence and unusual appearance, in comparison to the rest of the congregation.

“Those three new guys look like long-haired freaks.....A little young to be from the sixties.....but sorta hippie-ish nonetheless,” Hilda whispered into the ear of her friend Sally Jane, who was to her right.

But what she didn’t know was that Edie, another friend to her left, heard her.

“So you're gossiping about them just because they all have long hair and always come in together? That’s harsh and unfair. Just give them a chance Hilda,” she bravely declared.

Hila just looked up and rolled her eyes.

‘Sure, just keep that ugly nose of yours high in the air,’ Edie thought. But then immediately, she prayed: ‘Forgive me God, but Hilda’s judgmental attitude is really hard to take sometimes….Help me God. I don’t want to lose Hilda’s friendship.’ Just then, she felt her eyes well up with tears and started rummaging through her purse for a tissue.

Then she saw that Sally Jane noticed her sniffle, so she quickly hid her tissue in her pocket and tried not to appear upset or crying.

“Hey Edie. Are you okay?”

“Yeah, I’m fine. How bout’ you?”

“I’m okay, but there is something bothering me…..whadaya think of the new people…..those three guys with the long, very long hair and I saw tattoos on one of them too,” she said to Hilda’s relieve and surprise.

"Oh, those long-haired freaks don’t bother me…. I’m trying not to judge,” Hilda replied; trying to sound funny.

“Hahahaha…..They look like hoodlums,” Sally Jane whispered in reply.

“Now come on you two…..We don’t even know them. They could be very fine and nice….middle-aged men,” Edie interjected.

“Hahahaha….”the others both quietly giggled.

“Hang on….it looks like service is about to start….We’ll chat later,” Edie exclaimed.

“Good morning everyone! So good to see everybody this fine morning!

“AMEN,” the congregation replied in unison.

“This morning I’d like to welcome our newest attendees. Welcome Jay, Micky and Bo, to God’s House!”

Everyone applauded, except for Hilda and Sally Jane, who just looked at each other and shook their heads in disgust.

“After a long prayer session,” he began; looking directly into Hilda’s eyes. “I felt like God put it on my heart to speak to you this morning on judgment. You know there is the wrong way to judge; unrighteous judgment, but there is also righteous judgment. I’ve prepared a few examples in order to highlight the notable differences. Say you’re a witness to a crime. We have no idea what a stranger is going through. The true motive behind his actions we cannot know, however, we can and should see as his actions as ungodly. This is an example of the right way to judge. The actions, or shall I say sins are bad, but we can’t rightly judge anyone’s heart, only God can do that and our hearts are what matter most to GOD.

Say some new people come into the church and they sort of stick out like a sore thumb. They aren’t dressed like the others in the congregation, they aren’t the prim and proper types. As natural as it may be, it’s not right to assume they’re lazy or uncaring people. In my scenario, they are actually godly people who happen to work hard and long hours and don’t own nice clothes, nor do they care to…

We are to judge righteously, which means we are to call out unrighteousness without judging the motives of the person or persons involved. The Bible refers to this as discernment. It’s important that we recognize the distinction between judging actions and judging motives. God wants us to love the criminal and pray for him, while at the same time hating his crime. But the motives behind these things should not be assumed.

Furthermore, there is a difference between someone who steals as a way of life and someone who finds himself in a desperate situation where they and their children are starving and stealing is the only way to get anything to eat. God has mercy on these things. There still needs to be repentance, but God considers the heart and the heart of the career criminal is far different from that of the lost and desperate soul on the street.

The most common form of judgment we fall into is the judgment that is unfair and ungodly…..you know those times when we judge someone by their appearance. Just because someone doesn’t look the same as you do, doesn’t mean they’re a bad person. This sounds ridiculous-- because it is! It’s only natural to our human nature to fall into this sort of judging, but when God deals with us, and He WILL, we need to listen to HIS Voice of chastisement and obey His Command of avoiding this sort of judgment. God knows we all have to learn this and this difference between righteous judgment and unrighteous judgment. One way you can tell unrighteous judgment is it’s always without knowing all the facts. It’s an assumption we make upon meeting someone, like the example of someone who appears unclean or underdressed or disheveled.

OKAY, so you get to know them and they’re as bad as you first figured they were….Then what?”

Everyone laughed loudly at the Pastor’s sense of humor.

“But even then, we do not know what someone else is going through…..OKAY so say they pour out their hearts to you and YOU DO know what they are going through and it still seems ludicrous.”

Everyone laughed again. This time even harder.

“The more we know about what is truly behind someone’s questionable behavior, the more compassionate we should be….Not that their troubles could ever excuse their behavior. They will be accountable to God, but we are not their judge, because only God is The Rightful Judge, because ONLY His Judgment is Perfect,” Pastor Tom proclaimed; pointing upward.

And while the Pastor was teaching these things, and Hilda and Sally Jane sat gossiping about them, Jay, Micky and Bo were listening intently to Pastor Tom’s eye-opening sermon. And as they listened, they could feel their hearts changing. Moreover, Hilda and Sally Jane were barely listening to the sermon at all, as they were so caught up in gossip.

“Even when you know someone’s heart is dark and wicked, it’s still not okay to hate that person. Hate is never an excuse for rightful judgment. When you know someone is wicked and they are hell bent on staying that way, the proper response is to take pity on them for what they will have to face when they face the LORD….OKAY, now you know that you know that you know. That person is bad. Knowing that fact is not unrighteous judgment, but hatred is. The fact that you can see and clearly discern wickedness is not hatred, it’s clarity of your proper discernment. On the other hand, when we judge someone based solely on our own perceptions; that is unrighteous judgment.

Suddenly and finally, Hilda and Sally Jane perked up their ears and heard the final points the Pastor was making and looked at one another with deep concern and regret.

As for the male trio, they gossiped about these very same women, but only at first, for the Lord immediately began doing a work in them and changing their hearts of stone. They used to think:

‘Wow there sure are a lot of uptight, although sorta cute, biddies around this place.’ But now, their hard hearts were being softened by the Loving promptings of the Holy Spirit.

AND moreover, the Holy Spirit continued to chastise Hilda and Sally Jane, and their hearts were finally beginning to change also!

That Sunday Hilda and Sally Jane greeted Jay, Micky and Bo at the door, as they entered the church and shook their hands and introduced themselves as changed women.

Edie couldn’t help but hear them. She approached them; curious as to all the details.

After that, the six of them sat together for that service and continued to sit together every Sunday. They went out together for lunch and shopping; turning heads wherever they went.

.........................................................................................................................

The culture back in the days of the Bible did not support their men wearing hair long, as Paul explains in 1Corinthians, but then again that’s pretty much the cultural norm of any given time period. That’s due to the natural desire that men ought to look like men, and women like women, as nature would suggest. Paul was speaking in the form of warning, that these men would not be readily accepted in the church. Inasmuch as he wasn’t addressing men who were effeminate, he wasn’t commanding them to get haircuts, just letting them know and be aware that they could be ostracized for their hair length, being like that of women, rather than of men.

“Does not even nature itself teach you that if a man has long hair, it is a dishonor to him? But if a woman has long hair, it is a glory to her; for her hair is given to her for a covering. But if anyone seems to be contentious, we have no such custom, nor do the churches of God.” (1Corinthians 11:14-16)

“Every way of a man is right in his own eyes,
But the Lord weighs the hearts.” (Proverbs 21:2)

ALSO SEE: Luke 6:37-39 & V.41-42, Romans 2:1-3, Matthew 7:1-5 & 1Corintians 6:1-6

“You shall do no injustice in judgment. You shall not be partial to the poor, nor honor the person of the mighty. In righteousness you shall judge your neighbor.” (Leviticus 19:15)

^“But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not look at his appearance or at his physical stature, because I have refused him. For the Lord does not see as man sees; for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.” (1Samuel 16:7)

NKJV

Linzy has been writing for many years; seriously since her 3 kids were still young and inspirational. She has taken 2 courses in Bible studies and completed "Four Soils" Bible study course in a 26-month period; earning her certification in Bible Counselling.

Article Source: http://www.faithwriters.com-CHRISTIAN WRITERS

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