A few weeks ago at our mens group, we had a good healthy debate about outward appearance. On one hand, the Scriptures clearly spell out God’s desire for us to focus on the inside.
- God justified his choice of the little runt David as king with this: The LORD sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the LORD looks on the heart. (1 Samuel 16)
- Jesus critiqued the extravagant clothes of the Pharisees: They make their phylacteries broad and their fringes long (Matthew 5)
- Paul made no attempt to deny what the Corinthians said about him: His letters are weighty and strong, but his bodily presence is weak, and his speech of no account. (2 Corinthians 10)
On the other hand, God created beauty, so why should we ignore it?
- David sang about how God’s creation reveals God’s glory: The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork. (Psalm 19)
- Paul wrote about how we see God’s character in his creation: For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. (Romans 1)
There’s got to be some healthy balance point, right? So how far can you go in your attention to looks before you tip the scale? Getting a tattoo? Buying Rogaine? Paying for braces for your kid? Getting breast implants? (And before you answer, “Ooh, ooh, it’s the last one!” ask yourself if there’s really any difference between any of those choices.)
Making things even muddier, now there’s yet another way to indulge your vanity. For the low, low price of just $39.95 (Regular price: $79.95! Limited time only! Free 30-day trial!) you can download software called PortraitProfessional (HT: ThinkChristian) that will automatically turn your ugly face (Don’t think it’s ugly? Try pulling out your drivers license) into that of an international supermodel, tweaking everything from your zits, to your saggy eyes, to your less-than-perfect bone structure.
See the girl below? She Cosmo-ized herself in just a few clicks. Roll your mouse over to see how she looks in real life.
Clearly, the scale’s been tipped when you’re zapping all your family photos through the Auto-DeUglifying-Machine. So how do we put things back into balance? Throw out our shampoo and hairbrushes and makeup and designer clothes as a protest against our appearance-obsessed culture?
No way. The answer isn’t to spend more time thinking about how to think less about your appearance. According to Colossians 3, it’s to spend so much time thinking about how to love others that you have no time left to think about yourself. Instead of $500 jeans, Paul says you should “clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive.” If you’re really committed to doing all those things for the people around you, when are you going to find the time to worry about your less-than-stylish shirt?
I like how Lewis puts it in Mere Christianity:
Do not imagine that if you meet a really humble man he will be what most people call ‘humble’ nowadays: he will not be a sort of greasy, smarmy person, who is always telling you that, of course, he is nobody. Probably all you will think about him is that he seemed a cheerful, intelligent chap who took a real interest in what you said to him. If you do dislike him it will be because you feel a little envious of anyone who seems to enjoy life so easily. He will not be thinking about humility: he will not be thinking about himself at all.
What a great perspective. How much more enjoyable would our lives be if we spent more time thinking about others, and less time thinking about our haircuts?