Chassie Anders was born to be a hairstylist . “ I kind of struggled in school growing up ,” she shares , “ but when I walked into cosmetology school , everything just made sense to me . I was really good with my hands .” And quickly , Anders “ fell in love ” with her craft .
But when she fell in love with Jesus Christ a few years later , she was surprised to find her local church pressuring her to give up her vocational gifts . The dominant message Anders heard from leaders in her church was that the Great Commission is the only commission for those who are serious about following Christ .
So , Anders says , “ people didn ’ t really take my work seriously .” She and her husband were told implicitly and explicitly that “ what it means to be a Christ follower ” was to “ quit our jobs , sell most of our belongings , and say goodbye to our life as we knew it ” in Texas . And while she was deeply passionate about following Jesus , overseas missions just didn ’ t seem right for her .
“ I feel like my church put a ministry goal of sending a certain number of people to the nations ( an amazing thing , obviously ) in front of me as an individual child of God ,” she explains in retrospect . “ I don ’ t think anyone was asking , how is Chassie wired , and how can she specifically make a difference in the world ?” It seemed like “ my freedom to choose my calling , my freedom to choose how I specifically , uniquely follow Christ , was kind of taken from me in a way .”
So Anders and her husband followed the only path they knew to serve the Lord : signing a two-year agreement to serve as “ full-time missionaries ” in Asia . “ In the Christian world , beauty and the types of things I love can be seen as vain ,” she explains . “ So I figured it was the right choice to leave it behind .”
But it turned out that it wasn ’ t the right choice for Anders and her husband . Asia was “ extremely difficult for me personally ,” she says . “ I was majorly depressed .” And “ even though I have a huge heart for missions and sharing the gospel ... I felt so trapped .”
As they neared the end of their two-year commitment , the couple had an opportunity to leave Asia . On the one hand , it was an easy decision to go back home to Texas to serve God there . But Anders “ felt immense guilt for wanting to leave and pressure to stay .”
In the end , the couple made the brave decision to follow God ’ s call back to Texas . But Anders ’ s guilt followed her home .
“ I really struggled with going back to my work as a hairstylist ,” she says . “ I believed the lies that my job was not good enough in the eyes of God and that beauty is so vain compared to sharing the gospel with the unreached . It made me question everything : being a Christian , my purpose , my worldview , church , especially my work .”
But it was the work itself that God used to begin to heal Anders ’ s soul . “ One of the things my husband would tell me during our first year back home was how happy I seemed after doing a styled shoot or working with a bride ,” she shares . “ It was one of the few things that made my spirit feel ... alive !”
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