Haircuts. I have a love-hate relationship with haircuts. I love the way I look after I’ve got a new haircut, but I hate the actual process of getting one. So, two weeks ago I decided to go in and get a haircut. It was time, I knew it, I could no longer avoid the fact that my hair was getting long and shaggy and needed to be trimmed.

I walked into my favorite man salon, the Chop Shoppe, and sat down in the chair. The Man Cutter – who happened to be woman – asked me what I wanted for a haircut. Now normally I say that I want a long Caesar cut – 2 on the sides, long in the front, thinned down on top. But this time was different. This time I looked the Man Cutter right in the eye and said these words, “I want a Mohawk, please!” So – she got to cutting and before I knew it – I had a Mohawk. Now to be fair, she didn’t have much hair to work with, but she did the best she could with what she had and I walked out a happy man!

I don’t know what possessed me to ask for a Mohawk – I’ve never wanted one before, but this time I just thought that it I should get one. I thought it’d be fun, I thought that my wife would be impressed (she was – I think), and I thought that it would be really cool! It was all that and even more!

To maintain the Mohawk properly, I decided to switch from my regular hair gel, to a hair paste. Let me tell you – the difference between the paste and the gel is like the difference between night and day! The gel would just get stiff and hard and with the paste I could mold and shape the Mohawk all day! Totally loved the paste and if I can find a way to use on a regular basis – I will!

But enough about the maintenance – the reaction that I got from people was fascinating. Some people just loved the Mohawk, some people hated it and told me that they hated it, but most people just stared at it and shook their head.

After wearing the Mohawk for 2 weeks, I’ve decided to stop wearing it – not for any reason except that I think that I’ve learned what I was supposed to learn from it.

Here’s what I learned from wearing the Mohawk.

• If you’re going to wear a Mohawk, you’ve got to have some nerve. It’s not for the timid. People are going to point and stare. People are going to ask questions and people are going to make fun of it.  As the wearer of the Mohawk – you’ve just got to be confident enough in who you are that you can handle that pressure.
• If you’re going to wear a Mohawk, you’ve got to go big. There’s no sense in pretending, just make the Mohawk as high as you can and then wear it proudly! A faux hawk is only half-way and it screams that you’re just not able to commit!
• If you’re going to wear a Mohawk, you’ve got be willing to do the prep work to make it look good. If you put too much paste in, your hair looks wet and oily. If you put too little paste in, it starts to fall halfway through the day. You’ve got to put the time in to make the Mohawk look just right or else it’s not worth doing.
• Lastly, if you’re going to wear a Mohawk, you’ve got to love it. It’s got to be something that you love otherwise nobody will believe it. People need to see that you love it and once they do, then they accept it as part of who you are. So – you’ve got to love it if you’re going to wear it.

As I think about these and the other lessons I learned from wearing the Mohawk, it occurred to me that this is sort of how I want to live my life for my King.

• I want to have some nerve to stand up for the things that matter to my King, despite what other people say and I want to have full and complete confidence that this is what my King would want me to be doing to honor Him.
• I want to do big things for my King. I don’t want to do the things that everyone else can do, I want to do BIG things for my King that only I with my unique gifts and talents can do. I want to do the things that fit my shape and honor my King as only I can – that excites me and drives me!
• I want to do my prep work so that I know what my King wants and desires. I want to have an intimate knowledge of his words and his thoughts and then I want to re-teach and retrain my thoughts and words so that they model His!
• Lastly, I want to not just live my life for my King, I want to LOVE living my life for my King. I want to be able to look back in 40 years and be able to say that every step of the way I was loving the life that my King gave to me – through the good times and the bad, though sickness and through health, through rich and through poor, and forever and ever more. I want to love my life with my King and I never want to be separated from my King. That’s what I want!

So – the Mohawk’s done. I may bring it back every once in a while just to wear it and have some fun, but for now, it’s going to slip away. But the lessons I learned from wearing the Mohawk are lessons that I want to strive to bring into my life in a very real and awesome way.

So my question for you lone reader is this – what lessons about your King and your life could you learn from wearing a Mohawk for 2 weeks?