who got inspired by a sermon preached at his church many years ago<\/a>.. For the past quarter of a century he has gathered together his barber supplies, grabbed a car battery to power his clippers, and setup his barber chair (a lawn chair) in the open air of Bushnell Park in Hartford, Connecticut.<\/p>\nEvery Wednesday for the past quarter of a century he has cut hair. For free. For anyone who might need it.<\/p>\n
All Cymerys asks in return is a hug so he show his \u201ccustomers\u201d that he loves them.<\/p>\n
Now, I know it\u2019s easy to be cynical about an old man handing out hugs in a public park, but frankly if that\u2019s your response to this story you can take it somewhere else because I\u2019m not interested.<\/p>\n
What I am interested in is the sort of genuine love for neighbor it takes for someone to return week after week, year after year, decade after decade to serve their community, to offer a simple helping hand to those the rest of drive by and go out of our way to ignore.<\/p>\n
Sure, this isn\u2019t the traditional feeding of the hungry, giving the clothes off your back, or visiting someone in prison. What this is is a man looking at the gifts he has been given and finding a way to use them to serve others in need.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a simple, but genuine act of selfless love.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a holy haircut.<\/p>\n
Over the next several months, probably longer, I\u2019ll be going out of my way to highlight moments like these because they perfectly capture the sort of holy living I\u2019m trying to describe in my upcoming book, The Scandal of Holiness<\/em> (due this September). It is this sort of simple, but creative, boundary crossing love that I think perfectly captures the sort of holiness embodied by Jesus. It\u2019s a more authentic version of holiness than the sort of legalism many of us have experienced. More importantly, it\u2019s a form of holiness that not only can<\/em> each of us actually live out, it\u2019s one which we must<\/em> live out if are really going to be followers of Jesus.<\/p>\nSo, for the near future I want to highlight holy moments like these and I ask that if any of these moments cross your path, please share them with me.<\/p>\n
Because as a church, we need examples like Joe the Barber to remind us what it looks like to be the holy people of God in an unholy world.<\/p>\n
We need these reminders because the simple, but tragic reality is that there is something holier going on in Bushnell Park on Wednesday afternoons, than there is in many of our churches on Sunday mornings<\/a>.<\/p>\nThis must change.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Grace and peace,<\/p>\n
Zack Hunt<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
(via) Not being homeless there are a lot of basic things I take for granted in life; like a hot shower, a bed to sleep in, a clean change of clothes, or a mailing address to use when I\u2019m applying for a new job. Another thing I can add to that list which, to be […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3437,"featured_media":9693,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9692","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n
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![\"joe](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/941\/2013\/05\/joe-the-barber.jpg\")
<\/a>(via<\/a>)<\/p>\n