Lent day 19: The Parable of Beard Growing

Categories: uncategorized

Date: 25 February 2008 14:24:24

Given that three of my greatest loves are birdwatching, folk music and hiking, it was inevitable that I would eventually grow a beard.

This being a Lenten blog at the moment, here follows a brief summary of why growing a beard is like being a Christian. It's in parable form, you may recognise the original.

'The kingdom of God is like growing a beard. Four men grew their beards. The first man grew it for a week, and quite liked it. But then people told him it was starting to look silly: 'Look,' they say, 'at the animal on your face. And that's not very much hair yet so you're not very virile, are you? Go shave the damn thing off.' And he did, and went back to being clean shaven.

'The second man grew it for a week. But then it got really itchy. No matter what he did - be it tea tree oil, face soap or shampoo, it was unbearably itchy by about 8pm. And lo did he shave his beard off too.

'The third man got through the initial abuse and the terrible itch. But the winds of fashion caught him, and he sacrificed his full beard for a rather effete goatee with pencil line sidies.

'The fourth man however weathered the abuse, the itch and the changing winds of fashion. He grew a noble beard, and gained a mild inner satisfaction thereby. And he did come to fellowship with others who had good beards, such as folk musicians, ramblers and birdwatchers (not engineers and role playing gamers - so wrong). He is contented with appearance: The new face has come, the old is gone.'