Head Coverings

When I was a baby Christian, first reading the New Testament for the first time, I noticed in 1 Corinthians 11 that it calls for women to wear head coverings while praying or prophesying. I thought of the few Christian women I knew – none of them wore a head covering. I decided that I was probably reading the passage wrong – after all, I was a baby Christian, and these people had been Christians for a long time. So I put the passage aside.

The next time I read the passage I was part of a local church. (I moved about 2 weeks after becoming a Christian, and spent the first few months of my Christian walk unchurched and not in contact with any older Christians.) The passage still seemed to speak of wearing a head covering for prayer and prophesying. So I asked, and was told that that was a cultural phenomenon, strictly for the Corinthian church within the area so as not to offend unbelievers. I thought about it, and assumed that these people really had done more study on the subject than me, so until I had thought it out I’d go with their view. And each time I read 1 Corinthians 11, that is what I thought. It still didn’t make sense to me, but I was willing to let it go.

Recently I was reading a John Piper / Wayne Grudrem book called Recovering Biblical Manhood and Womanhood. One of the contributors was going through that very argument. And I got to the end or the argument and thought, “That just doesn’t make sense. There is nothing in the passage that argues that it is a cultural norm and not a Biblical one. Indeed, the passage implies that it is a Biblical norm.” So I got out every Bible version I had, and read each and every translation. My conclusion was that I needed to be wearing a head covering for church and prayer.

I went out and bought some very basic head coverings, and wore them that night to a prayer meeting. No one said anything, or even noticed. During prayer, God reminded me that we are to pray continually, without ceasing. So I decided that I would wear a head covering throughout the day. I thought, based on the non-event of wearing a head covering to one church event that this would be simultaneously easy and yet would have me grow closer to God through my obedience. Well, the second of those was right. But as for the first one… it’s easy to put the head covering on, but keeping it on… that’s another story…

To be continued…