Preacher Jason Pic by Samantha Masters
When I was a teenager, I had already begun to lose my hair. As you might imagine, it was devastating to my fragile self-esteem. I remember one day, a friend made a joke about my five head (I obviously had a little more than a forehead), and I threatened to fight him. My threats were out of character since I have always been a lover, not a fighter. Truthfully, the fight was inside of me. I was struggling to find contentment with how God had created me. I was already six foot three, weighing in at a whopping one hundred and thirty pounds, and now I was going bald too. My widow’s peak continued to sharpen until when in my late twenties, I tried wearing a rug, a toupee, a piece. I was wearing a stranger’s hair on my head. It wasn’t the traditional hairpiece. It was sewn into an artificial scalp which was glued onto my head. Let me tell you, that hair cap made a hot day unbearable! That season of my life was the most difficult of all of my struggles with self-esteem. I assumed that every laugh from strangers around me was at my expense. One day I decided that I was done pretending to be Fabio and chose to be Jason instead. I peeled off that artificial scalp and shaved my head completely. Something in me changed that day. I concluded that I am fearfully and wonderfully made the way I am (Ps 139:14). I learned to be content in whatever state God chose to put me, follically speaking (Phlp 4:11). I realized that God knew me before I was and had been prepared for his purpose (Jer. 1:5).
The fantastic thing is that what I had denied and fought for the first part of my life has come to be part of my identity. People know me as that bald preacher. An occasional bald joke opens doors in conversations, lessons, and sermons. I am aerodynamic now. I was destined to become some blessed lady’s hairless pet. I am bald, and I am glad. I am ok with God’s design and even understand now a little bit of his purpose. I hope my testimony with my silly struggle can be used to help someone with a similar struggle. I thought of what to call this blog, and the two things that seem to define me are what I chose. I am bald, but more importantly, I am a believer in Jesus Christ, God’s only begotten son, who suffered and died for me, called me to serve him and designed me according to his plan. I am the Bald Believer.