Just Let Your Soul Glow
Well, whatever you do … do it all for God’s glory. – 1 Corinthians 10:31 (GNT)
Fighting my rising embarrassment, I admit to having a Jheri Curl hairstyle back in the day. With many others, I endured the nose-hair-burning smell of the chemicals that forced my tightly curled natural hair into looser curls that freely moved and bounced with each movement of my head. My apologies to anyone experiencing flashbacks of finding oily spots wherever your head rested, or the pillow-protecting shower caps that noisily disrupted your sleep with each turn and toss.
Digging past the retrospective shame, I have fond memories of pre-washing Jheri-Curl-juice-stained shirt collars by hand after school with my siblings. I’ll never forget about unintentionally flinging excess activator off my hair from playing foursquare or jumping rope during recess. More than that, there was something very powerful about sharing a common hairstyle with countless others across geographic locations, economic statuses, genders, ages, and various other life circumstances.
The fictional ad in the 1980s movie, Coming to America, comically captures how very unifying the Jheri Curl experience was for many Black communities, whether one personally had the hairstyle or not. The actors in the ad spray the Soul Glo product into their hair while they dramatically turn their heads to get their juicy curls to swing with them. While they do, the background singer’s falsetto voice emerges from deep within: “Just let your Soul Glo, just let it shine through.”
And so it is with this Unifying Baby we await, the One who calls us across various human divisions to show us how to activate the beauty of our own souls and allow them to unashamedly shine through all the noise and devastation, all for God’s glory.
Prayer
Earnestly, I pray: Just let my soul glow, just let it shine through!
About the AuthorThe Rev. Phiwa Langeni is the Ambassador for Innovation & Engagement of the United Church of Christ. They are also the Founder of Salus Center, the only LGBTQ resource and community center in Lansing, MI.