Did you lose your razor?

I have never been aggressive when it comes to shaving. The last couple weeks, my commitment to this task has dissipated even further - maybe once every 7 or 8 days. So yesterday, I went to work sporting my favorite neon yellow-green t-shirt and some rather scruffy facial hair. I was a little surprised when two people commented about the facial hair.

One person said, "Did you lose your razor?"

I replied, "No."

Okay, this probably seems goofy but I thought about this interaction today on my bike ride. First, just to be clear, the comments really didn't bother me. In fact, I thought they were pretty funny. Second, and more importantly, I started thinking about picking and choosing the characteristics that constitute "fitting in."

(I'm returning to this after about 8 hours - not sure if any of this will actually amount to much but anywho...)

Who decides what is correct for facial hair anyway? Why was this characteristic singled out from any number of other characteristics? I think it is probably a probably a general tendency to selectively judge others based off of some defined set of characteristics. I catch myself (sometimes not in time) judging others. Academic credentials is just one area where I am quick to judge others.

At times, the church is also quite selective about judging others and focusing primarily on certain sins. I'm becoming more and more convinced, though, that the church has no business treading down that path. Church should be about loving, about kingdom-building - not being the standard bearer against a handful of specific sins.