{"id":5373,"date":"2026-04-17T07:48:41","date_gmt":"2026-04-17T11:48:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/?p=5373"},"modified":"2026-04-17T07:48:41","modified_gmt":"2026-04-17T11:48:41","slug":"beauty-salon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/2026\/04\/17\/beauty-salon\/","title":{"rendered":"Beauty Salon"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast<\/em>,\u00a0click here<\/a>
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If God really exists, why is the world such a mess<\/em>?
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It\u2019s easy to document that on any given day people all over the planet awaken to wars, famines, and corruption. \u00a0
\u00a0
Why doesn\u2019t God, with one sweep of his hand, wipe the slate clean?
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No wonder \u201cthe problem of pain\u201d is the number one objection to the claims of Christianity.
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In his book Faith and Doubt, <\/em>John Ortberg tells about a friend named Sheryl who went to a salon to have her nails manicured.
\u00a0
As conversations tend to evolve in such places, Sheryl and her stylist landed on one subject after another to pass the time.
\u00a0
Eventually they touched on God. That\u2019s when the beautician said, \u201cI don\u2019t believe that God exists.\u201d
\u00a0
\u201c\u2019Why do you say that?\u2019 asked Sheryl. As someone afflicted with MS, she\u2019s invested a considerable amount of time pondering the reality of God\u2019s presence and care.
\u00a0
\u201c\u2019Well, you just have to go out on the street to realize God doesn\u2019t exist,\u201d the beautician began.\u00a0\u201cTell me, if God exists, would there be so many sick people?\u00a0Would there be abandoned children?\u00a0If God existed, there would be neither suffering nor pain.\u00a0I can\u2019t imagine loving a God who could allow all these things.\u201d
\u00a0
Sheryl had no desire to start an argument. She sat quietly as the beautician finished her nails, then left the shop.
\u00a0
Ortberg writes, \u201cJust after she left the beauty shop, she saw a woman in the street with long, stringy, dirty hair.\u00a0She looked filthy and unkempt.\u00a0Sheryl turned, entered the beauty shop again, and said to the beautician, \u2018You know what?\u00a0Beauticians do not exist.\u2019
\u00a0
\u201c\u2019How can you say that?\u2019 asked the surprised beautician.\u00a0\u2018I am here.\u00a0I just worked on you.\u00a0I exist.\u2019\u00a0
\u00a0
\u2018No,\u2019 Sheryl exclaimed, \u2018beauticians do not exist, because if they did, there would be no people with dirty, long hair and appearing very unkempt like that woman outside!\u2019
\u00a0
\u201c\u2019Ah, but beauticians do exist,\u2019 she answered.\u00a0\u2018The problem is that people do not come to me.\u2019\u201d
\u00a0
Exactly.<\/em>
\u00a0
What can we say about the fact that God seems so, well, invisible so much of the time?\u00a0
\u00a0
The surprising and jarring truth is that God stands back because he yearns to be sought. As Jesus says in the Sermon on the Mount, \u201cAsk and it will be given to you;\u00a0seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.\u00a0\u00a0For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds;\u00a0and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened\u201d (Matthew 7:7-8).
\u00a0
But that\u2019s not all.
\u00a0
God also yearns to recruit us <\/em>to be his hands and feet in a broken world.\u00a0
\u00a0
We are the ones, acting on his behalf, who are called to bring healing to those who suffer and transformation to those without hope.\u00a0
\u00a0
Such acts of kindness and grace not only help others see God\u2019s face.
\u00a0
They inevitably display a kind of beauty that no salon will ever be able to provide.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast,\u00a0click here\u00a0If God really exists, why is the world such a mess?\u00a0It\u2019s easy to document that on any given day people all over the planet awaken to wars, famines, and corruption. \u00a0\u00a0Why doesn\u2019t God, with one sweep of his hand, wipe the slate clean?\u00a0No wonder \u201cthe problem of pain\u201d is the number one… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5374,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[243,112],"class_list":["post-5373","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-seeking-god","tag-suffering"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5373","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5373"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5373\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5375,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5373\/revisions\/5375"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5374"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5373"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5373"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5373"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}