several years ago, i heard another youth pastor say that once you get past the age of 23, you're not cool anymore. then he said something like if you're 24 or 25, you still think you're cool, which is really sad. i laughed like everyone else who heard him say it, but now i'm starting to think he was serious. i thought i was doing ok until about 6 months ago.

it all started while i was getting my hair cut, and the lady doing the cutting said nonchalantly, "oh, you have a little white hair." white mind you. not a lighter shade of brown, not a little graying or even gray, but solid santa claus white. so i told her to pluck it out. and she asked if i wanted her to pluck all of them or just that one. all of them? how many are there? SEVEN. she plucked seven santa clause white hairs out of my head before i even got to my 27th birthday. (jeremy told me this would happen when i took this job).

so i'm keeping an eye on the white hairs, but otherwise i think i'm ok. i decided to let my hair grow longer than usual for a while, and got it cut short again recently. (remember, i just turned 27). so i walk in the office one day, and a student says "you're haircut makes you look younger. you look like you're still in your 20's." thanks a lot! i'll be sure to remember to keep my hair like this for the next TWO YEARS so i'll appear to be close to the age i actually am. what, am i looking like tim allen in the santa clause movie?

couple weeks later, i'm showing off a family picture from 8 months before, in which i'm sporting a soul patch that i thought was sweet. again, out of the mouth of a teenager, "oh, that's a such a good picture! the soul patch ain't exactly working for you though." guess my wife was right. glad i got rid of that thing. now if i can just find a way to redeem myself for the whole year i had it...


so what's next? what else? my clothes. not long after the soul patch comment, we took some of the students to the water park in greensboro. (no, i had no intentions of retaliating against the soul patch kid). knowing we're going to get wet, i did the smart thing - i wore my coolest pair of swimming shorts. i just bought them a year ago, they are a recognized brand (on sale at kohl's for $5), yellow with blue tropical flowers. my wife even picked them out. the first teenager arrives at the church, and the first thing out of her mouth is a very sarcastic "nice shorts." great! then, three days later, another student tells me "the 70's called, they want their sideburns back." i'm not even 30 yet. i would like to thinkd i still have more than half my life ahead of me, but i guess if i want to be considered cool, i'll have to hang out at a retirement home. oh well, my son's just 2 years old - maybe God's preparing me for what's coming. at least my wife still smiles at me. or is she laughing?