Care

For me, one of the hardest things about moving is finding a new place to get my hair cut. I miss my barbershop in Nashville. It was not like the movie(Barber Shop) I did not go in there for the conversations. It wasn’t like a family with all my boys hanging around. I actually never talked that much. I did not understand a whole lot of what was going on. See, the TV would always have ESPN “Deportes” on. And at the taco stand outside, you could get $1.00 off a combo if you just got a fresh fade. The place is called Oscar’s, and it is an all-Mexican barbershop. But I liked to get my hair cut in the same place that the kids from church did. About a year ago, they quit going to Cecil’s because he tried to cut someone’s hair when he was drunk and cut their ear. So now the kids go to Oscar’s. I loved it there! They had great steak tacos outside, and they used a straight razor for your edge up. Their fades are the best, but you better point to the type of fade you want on the picture of the wall and understand the Spanish word for the number of guard you want. Trust me, I made that mistake once and walked out with a skin tight fade and skinny sideburns. I looked like the fat white version of Oscar de la Hoya. But I loved that place and the $1.00 discount on the combo.

So I needed a haircut here in Fort Worth. I like my fades. I drove around and saw this place called Scoop’s. It is new since the last time I lived here. But it was my kind of place. It had been a year since I watched SportsCenter in English at a barber shop. John Clayton speaking Spanish just is not right. They had the same fade chart on the wall as Xavier’s, so I knew I was in a safe place. It had only been open for 2 months, he said. Scoop is from North Carolina, so we talked about how bad the Titans and Panthers are. While I was talking in the barber shop, hinting that a $1.00 off combo to Taco Casa would make me feel at home, I noticed on this pretty chilly day that people where locked out and lining up next door. Most, if not all, of the people in the growing line (which had to be about 30 by the time I left) were women and children. I asked what was going on next door. He said that it was a line for flu shots and other shots, and that the health department locks their doors during lunch so they can eat in peace and not be bothered. Children sit out in the cold waiting to get into a place that is going to give them something that will help them not get sick.

Question: Would those people be standing outside if they were from the city 15 minutes down the road in Southlake? Can a health department run by the government not find a way to stagger one person’s lunch so little kids don’t have to sit in the cold? I know government health care workers are overworked and underpaid and a nice quiet lunch is probably the only thing that keeps them from replacing the joke going postal to going pubic health care worker on you. But we have to lock the people out? There not $15.00 a day in the budget or $75.00 a week to pay some security guard to come in for the lunch break to keep the peace and order and give out numbers.



Lou Holtz said it best when asked what his plans were to change the South Carolina football when he took over. They were like 1-22 in their last 23 games. He said the same way the state of South Carolina interstate is going to go from dirty to clean. Lou Holtz said, “If enough people care!” If people care enough to not throw it out in the first place and if enough people care to go out and work hard and pick up the trash that has already been thrown out. Then we will have a successful football team here at South Carolina. I need players who care! You know what he got? Players who cared! After only winning 1 game his first year, South Carolina won 8 games and beat Ohio State in a bowl game the next year. Lou Holtz said later he knew it was going to happen, because he had players who cared. He said, “Look at the interstates. They are beautiful now. I knew they would be when I saw that over 2,000 showed up to pick up trash off the interstate the next day after the press conference.”


That is what we need. How lights start shining is that people care enough to be a light, that people care enough to shine! It is bigger than the problem that little kids get locked out in the cold. Do enough we care to do something about evil? Do enough people care to shine?! Because when lights start to shine, then mercy starts to live, and hearts start to care! Little kids get to drive their parents crazy inside a nice cozy building while the healthcare workers (who have care in their name and signed up for this job) will eat their lunches in peace and noise. When we care, others seem to matter a little more than our comfort.

One line from a song that Mercy Me sings just kicks me every time I hear it says "How can I care about your kingdom, when I am so wrapped up in mine". This line is my eats at my soul because I am so guilty. But I pray that I care enough about his kingdom to see like Him. I hope you do to.