Thoughts from the 2024 Greece Trip
When asked, “What was one of your favorite memories from your trip?”, I think of the excursion to ancient Corinth as one of the top moments. We had visited the small museum first, then stepped out into the remains of the city. A temple to Apollo was in ruins, but the columns were beautiful. We walked to the shade of some small trees where our guide, Aliki, expounded on what we were seeing. The city was very large, with a huge open market, and Paul could possibly have worked there. Corinth was the “Las Vegas” of ancient times. Many of the population were slaves, and according to Aliki, the slaves – both men and women – were required to have their heads shaved. In 1 Corinthians 11, Paul instructs women to cover their heads. To do this would allow the slave women to hide their shaved heads, and the free women would encourage them by covering their own heads.
In the devotion in My Utmost For His Highest, Oswald Chambers writes:
“As soon as you begin to live the life of faith in God, rich and fascinating possibilities open up before you. These things are yours by right, but if you are living the life of faith, you will exercise your right to waive your rights. You will let God choose for you.
In Genesis 13, Abraham declines to choose a parcel of land, even though choosing would seem the wisest thing for him to do. Even though it is Abraham’s right to choose, even though people will consider him a fool for not choosing, Abraham lets God decide.
God sometimes allows you to be tested in a way that requires you to sacrifice your own well-being. At such times, it seems only right for you to think about yourself, to put your needs first. But if you are living a life of faith, you will joyfully set aside your right and allow God to direct your path. This is the discipline by which the natural is transformed into the spiritual, through obedience to the voice of God.
Whenever we allow rights and entitlements to guide us, we dull our spiritual insight. The great enemy of the life of faith in God isn’t sin; it’s the good which isn’t good enough. The good is always the enemy of the best.
Many of us fail to progress spiritually because we prefer to choose what seems right instead of relying on God to choose for us. We have to learn to walk according to the standard which keeps its eye on God: “Walk before me” (Genesis 17:1).”
My thought settled on the free women, those who did not have shaved heads, who had their own hair — maybe they chose to allow God to decide, to set aside their own rights and allow God to direct their path, to choose to show grace to all believers; because to God we are all equal. Maybe they covered their hair, not for a patriarchal point of view, but to demonstrate their faith and love for Jesus.