Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow

 There's really no wonderful way of introducing this.  I'm going bald.  I'm 27 years-old, and I've been going bald for years.  This may not seem like such a big deal, but my hair (when I had a lot of it) was a large part of my identity.  In fact, I didn't start wearing my hair (what I have left of it, anyway) as short as it is now until late 2009.  Before then, it was common for me to have my hair in all sorts of different styles that required my hair to be at least a couple inches long.  When I did finally decide to cut it all off, a lot of people didn't recognize me.

As difficult as this transition has been for me, I think I've handled it well.  In doing youth ministry, I've had to.  There were some youths I worked with before moving to Dayton who especially enjoyed giving me a hard time about it.  How did I handle such a "sensitive" issue?  I simply turned to the Bible.  When one of the youth started in about me going bald, I suggested she read 2 Kings 2:23-25.

[Elisha] went up from there to Bethel; and while he was going up on the way, some small boys came out of the city and jeered at him, saying, ‘Go away, baldhead! Go away, baldhead!’ When he turned round and saw them, he cursed them in the name of the Lord. Then two she-bears came out of the woods and mauled forty-two of the boys. From there he went on to Mount Carmel, and then returned to Samaria. -2 Kings 2:23-25

When she was done reading, I simply smiled at her and asked her to remember what happened the last time a bunch of kids made fun of one of God's prophets for going bald.   Before anyone gets too upset, I wasn't seriously threatening to maul anyone with a bear.  This was just a way to respond humorously to the situation instead of letting it get to me.  Everyone there got a good laugh out of it, and the issue of my thinning hair started coming up less and less.

There are a lot of funny and weird stories in the Bible.  One of the benefits of doing as much Bible study as I have is that I know so many stories like this.  What are some of your favorite weird Bible stories?