Get Over Yourself: Why I Wear Crazy Hats (Stories)
Written by Josiah Plett
When I was in grade 12, I got pretty bored with school. One night before I went to bed I decided to try something new to spice things up a little bit. For some reason at this point I had a number of strange hats; I figured it would be fun to wear a crazy hat at school the next day. I did, and it was fun! I decided to make a thing of it; I wore a crazy hat every Thursday for the rest of my grade 12 year. I called it “Thinking Cap Thursday”, and when people asked me why I wore such crazy hats, I simply replied, “It’s Thursday”.
Originally I did this just because I was bored and thought it would make life interesting. I’ve since continued this practice for a couple of reasons. First of all, I was a pretty proud person. I was confident in my abilities and I enjoyed the attention I got, especially in my ability to succeed in academics. I realized later how destructive my pride could be, and I realized that by wearing crazy hats I was forcing myself to get over myself.
What I mean is this: by wearing a crazy hat, people are going to give me funny looks. They might even laugh at me; I would have to get used to people thinking I was weird.
Part of my pride issue was that I cared so much what people thought of me. I was good at a lot of things and I people liked me because of it. I was afraid of what people if did anything weird; I wanted to be cool in the eyes of the school. Wearing crazy hats was actually something that trained me not to care so much about what people think of me.
Proverbs 29:25 has something to say to this. It says: “Fear of man will prove to be a snare, but whoever trusts in the Lord is kept safe.”
My fear of others kept me from being who I really was and being grateful to God for how he made me. I wasn’t really trusting what God says about me, that I am fearfully and wonderfully made” (Psalm 139:14).
I also find that wearing crazy hats is a great way of starting conversations. As someone who believes in Jesus Christ and the good news that he has brought, I want to share that with other people. Sometimes that require starting a conversation, even with a stranger. I find that wearing a crazy hat makes me someone who people can approach; typically people aren’t intimidated or scared of someone who is ridiculous like that. I’ve actually found that wearing a crazy is a great conversation starter.
You don’t have to wear a crazy hat to get over the fear of others. Instead, simply ask God to grow you in this area. It may be a journey, but God wants to set you free from fear, and he can start the process right now.