Living From Sunday 2 Sunday
Living From Sunday 2 Sunday
EP 170: Embracing Change: The Bald Truth
What happens when you let go of something that's defined you for 17 years? After nearly two decades with dreadlocks, I made the life-changing decision to shave my head completely bald. This wasn't just a haircut – it was a profound moment that forced me to confront how much of my identity had become wrapped up in my appearance.
The physical transformation revealed deeper spiritual truths about seasons of change and personal identity. As Ecclesiastes reminds us, "For everything there is a season" – and sometimes entering a new season requires embracing the direct opposite of where we currently stand. My journey from dreads to bald became a powerful metaphor for the Christian concept of metanoia (repentance) – literally changing your mind before external transformation can follow.
This episode explores the vulnerable space between who we've been and who we're becoming. I share how the dreads that began as something to please my wife gradually became a source of pride that occasionally led me into dangerous situations. The physical change represents a reclaiming of my true identity in Christ rather than in external appearances. If you're struggling with making a significant change in your life – whether leaving an unhealthy relationship, breaking an addiction, or transforming any area where you feel stuck – this raw conversation will encourage you to embrace the unknown. Sometimes what we fear most about change is uncertainty about how our lives will look afterward, but as I've discovered, our healthiest and strongest selves emerge when we courageously step into transformation.
Ready to embrace change in your own life? Subscribe, leave a review, and join our community as we navigate the journey of living faithfully from Sunday to Sunday.
Welcome to the Living From Sunday to Sunday podcast with your host, pastor B. This podcast is designed to help you walk faithfully with God through the various trials and challenges this life presents. The truth of who we are is revealed in our lives. In between Sundays. You will be inspired, challenged and equipped to live a victorious life that will bring glory to God himself. Come on, let's get started.
Speaker 2:Hello and welcome to another episode of the Living from Sunday to Sunday podcast. I'm your host, pastor B. Thank you so much for listening to today's episode. I believe that this is the best 15 minutes of your day, and the real change happens 15 minutes at a time. So if you haven't done so, please make sure that you like, share and subscribe to the podcast and if you're watching on YouTube, make sure that you hit the notification bell so that you're notified every time that a new video is released, and make sure that you like the podcast as well. So today is an interesting episode. If you are watching this via YouTube, I'm pretty sure that you are a little bit alarmed at what you're seeing. I have cut my hair. I have cut my hair. I have had dreads for, I would say, the last 17 years. I briefly cut my hair in 2014 for about six months. I had like a low bald fade for that time frame, but I decided to regrow my hair at the end of 2014.
Speaker 2:And since then the next, like nine years, I'd grown my hair out and I decided that it was time for a change. It was time for um, something new and something different. Now, a part of why I decided to do that um was simply because my um. I think. I think it was two reasons. One, um, as I'm getting older, you know, my hair was starting to thin some and I became really self-conscious about the top, like the crown of my head, anytime that my wife would style my hair.
Speaker 2:I was really self-conscious at the fact that, you know, it was not as much hair up there as it used to be, as much hair up there as it used to be Right. And so over the last, I'd say, the last two, two and a half months, I decided that I wanted to cut my hair, but not just cut my hair, I wanted to go bald. I wanted to do something that I had never, ever, done before Um. And so over these last two and a half months, I've been thinking about about changes and thinking about um.
Speaker 2:Whenever um I made this, this change, that I wanted it to be a permanent one, like I didn't want um, like I didn't want, I didn't want to go back to the low ball phase that I had. I wanted it to be a definitive marker for the next phase of my life. And so I really really just contemplated and just kind of thought about it for a while. As to you know my reason why I wanted to do the change, the motivation to keep this change in place, and what this change would do for me and what I wanted it to do for me in this next phase of life, and I think one of the things that I think about is a lot of times we choose to make you know abrupt changes, all of the factors, the pros and the cons of the changes that we make it's really, really easy for us to go back on our changes and to revert to the previous person, to the previous lifestyle that we had before, that we had before.
Speaker 2:And for me, there's been a lot of areas in my life that I think have needed additional focus and needed a different level of focus, a different level of intentionality. And what I wanted to do was I was like, okay, yes, you're changing your hairstyle, you're going completely bald. It's a different type of maintenance. It's a different type of you know, I'm learning to do something I've never done before, which is maintain a bald head right. And what I wanted to do is I wanted to look at other areas in my life to see if it was time to to make some, some definitive changes, right? So I'm looking and considering.
Speaker 2:That, in my mind, goes to the scripture that we're all kind of familiar with, but I want to give you my own perspective, considering where I am in life, right? So it is this, the third chapter of Ecclesiastes. This is the third chapter of Ecclesiastes, all right, and it starts off by saying for everything there is a season and a time, for every matter under heaven A time to be born, a time to die, a time to plant and a time to pluck up what is planted.
Speaker 2:A time to kill and a time to heal, a time to break down and a time to build up. A time to weep, a time to laugh, a time to mourn, a time to dance, a time to cast away stones and a time to break down and a time to build up. A time to weep, a time to laugh, a time to mourn, a time to dance, a time to cast away stones and a time to gather stones together. A time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing, a time to seek and a time to lose, a time to keep and a time to cast away. And so one thing about this particular scripture that I think about and I center myself on is the necessary time in your life that move to alter the course of your life is going to be in a direct opposite of where you are now. So, if you are currently in a moment of weeping, in order to change the trajectory of your thought process, of your mood, of your emotions, you're going to have to choose to do something completely different, to do the exact opposite, and without the commitment of maintaining this change for good you can have, it can be momentary, it can be based on your emotions. It's not really a choice, and for me, you know, this decision to cut my hair means that every day now I have to shave my head. Every day I have to look at myself in the mirror and accept the difference, like this change is so drastic that I can't go back tomorrow and try to put my hair back on my head. It's not a unit, it's not anything that I can easily revert back to that previous hairstyle, and I think whenever we commit to him and whenever he's pleading for us to believe in him and to come to him, the decision to change, the decision to turn your life around, your thought process, is what has to be the first thing. To change the word repentance in the Greek it's called metanoia which is simply to change your mind, to change of your thought process, the practical, everyday living for God and obeying him, and changing some of the habits that you do. Those things may not instantly change when you give your life to God and you trust him as Lord and Savior.
Speaker 2:Your thought process is changing now, right, because your mind is being renewed and you're looking to Jesus to help to compensate for your lack, instead of feeling defeated and hopeless.
Speaker 2:Because of Jesus Christ, now he has paid the penalty for sin. He has won victory over sin, and so now I'm starting with a new reality and a new understanding that Jesus is the one that is driving and sustaining us as we're making this change for good, right, and so my thought process is really been a lot clearer these last two days. So today is Sunday, april 13th I believe I couldn't hear Friday the 11th, right, so I've had roughly about 36 hours of, you know, sitting with this new, new change, and and I think what's so interesting about this is just the fact that, um, everyone who've seen me, they're shocked at the change, but it's also something that people have complimented and said that it suits me, and many times we are afraid to make changes because we're not sure how it's going to like, how our life is going to look once we fully commit to change and we fully stop doing those things that committed us or that we did on a constant, consistent and repetitive basis right.
Speaker 1:What is?
Speaker 2:life is going to look like when I separate from this abusive situation. What is uh, when I start eating better, when I start um, you know, when I give up, uh, alcohol, when I give up weed, when I give up drugs, what is this new life going to look like? Give up?
Speaker 2:weed or they give up drugs. What is this new life going to look like? And what we fail to understand a lot of times is this new life suits us like we are. We look healthier, we look stronger. We are the best versions of ourselves whenever we give up, um, our addictions to our vices.
Speaker 2:One of the curious things, as I've been thinking about this hair journey over the last 17 years, is my wife is the one who encouraged me to to grow my hair out because she wanted, um, you know she thought it was good on me and you know I did it for her, truthfully, um, but that was the original intention at the beginning, right, and then, as the years went by, I noticed that I looked really, really nice with dreads, and so the downside of that is that I became too wrapped up in my own identity regarding the dreads.
Speaker 2:The dreads became a key marker in how I saw myself, and so what happens sometimes is you can feel yourself so much so that you forget to stay humble, and there were points and moments in life where I didn't get, where I wasn't humble, because I was so impressed with how I looked and I had a higher version of myself than I needed to, right, and so I had to admit that that part of something that started out as a blessing, I mishandled it and it became a core part of my identity and it didn't always benefit me positively, right, those moments when I was feeling myself.
Speaker 2:I got involved and got too close to dangerous situations and dangerous people because I had a level of pride that I could handle any type of situation that came my way, and so part of you know the reason for making these changes in my life is that I don't want to be tied to any exterior force that is going to dictate how I see myself right. My identity must come from within right God has already called me his son.
Speaker 2:I am below, I am a child of God and I am in a joint area with Christ right. That is an internal reality. That means more to me now than my physical appearance. Does my physical appearance matter? Of course it does right.
Speaker 1:I want to look good.
Speaker 2:Right, I want to. There's a level of self-confidence that I still want to have, but it has to be tempered right. It has to be within certain boundaries in order for it to remain healthy.
Speaker 2:And that's my encouragement for anyone today who is trying to decide whether or not to make a big change. For me, cutting my hair was a huge thing for me just because it's been with me for 17 years. But whatever change that you know is probably necessary, whether it's a physical change Again, mine was more physical than anything else but whatever your reason is that you're wanting to make that change, I want to encourage you to consider it, to look at what you want your life to look like after the change. Right, and let that be your goal, let that be your new striving point so that, even when this new change happens and you have friends that let you down.
Speaker 2:You have people who loved you when you quote unquote had dreads and they don't want to see you and they won't accept you in this new way. Know that those opinions, they're not enough to make you revert to the old person.
Speaker 2:Right, because we have been created to be new creatures. Right, we have been created to be new creatures. Right, old things are passed away according to, according to scripture. Right, the old ideas, the old mindsets, the old attitudes. They're dead. Right and behold, all things are made new. Right, your life, this new phase, this new era of your life. It's a new one, it's full of life, it's full of possibilities. And go, embrace the change, go be great and go grow into the person that God has called you to be. That's it. That's all I have for right now.
Speaker 2:Thank you, guys again. So much for listening and tuning into this podcast. Of course, each episode is available everywhere where podcasts can be found Good Pods, apple Podcasts, spotify. Make sure, again, that you download, share and subscribe um. Leave us a five star um review, let us know how this is encouraging you and if you're watching on youtube, please again make sure that you um subscribe to the show, hit the notification bell so that anytime a new episode drops, you'll be the first to know. All right, so until next time, we'll see you when we see you.
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