Click for Video on Manly Shaving
Do you ever get sick of shaving? Man, I do.
Every day you get up, take a look in the mirror and realize you got to do this shaving thing all over again. I know some of you have such thick beards that you even have to shave again at the end of the day if you are going out that night. Some of you may have the opposite issue, you don’t grow much facial hair – or maybe it grows in patches. Whatever the issue, if we don’t shave regularly we are not going to look our clean shaven best.
Many guys like to sport some facial hair of all shapes and sizes: mustaches, goatees, soul patches, beards, chops (A.K.A. sideburns) and any combination thereof. I’ve had sideburns, a goatee and currently sport a soul patch – my wife is not into beards or mustaches. Regardless of the kind of facial hair that you may wear, you still need to trim it regularly or it’s going to go Duck Dynasty on you.
Are you a blade man or a razor man? It’s pretty hard to beat a multi-edge blade with some sweet shaving gel to give you that smooth clean shave. In fact, there is an art to shaving. There are old style “manly shaving shops” springing up at various locations around North America. Like the days of the old west, you can go in and pay to have a shave done with all the fine accoutrements. For a bit of a chuckle, click on the link to see a video from the “Art of Manliness” on how to shave like your Grandpa.
So, here is the significant lesson I learned from shaving: no matter how good you are at shaving, or how often you do it, your facial hair keeps growing back.
When I was thinking about this I noticed that facial hair is a lot like pride. Pride keeps coming back. No matter how often I think I have dealt with it, pride is always there. As long as I keep it in check on a regular basis I am going to be ok, but I have to keep “shaving” it.
Now don’t freak out if you have a beard and think I’m saying that you must be proud. No, that’s not it at all. All I am saying is that dealing with pride is like shaving, we have to keep cutting it back – we have to keep choosing ‘humility’. We are predisposed to being proud, it’s part of our sin nature. We have to choose humility.
We have to learn to recognize pride so we can choose humility. How do we do that? Well, it is a lifelong lesson we learn with God’s help, but there are a few emotions that will be clues for us that pride is potentially in operation. When we feel those emotions we can then choose humility:
Anger: when you get angry it could very well be because you feel disrespected, disregarded, undervalued, demeaned, diminished, etc. Pride can often be at the root of that. People aren’t treating you the way you think they should. I am not talking about letting people walk all over you, I am simply saying that often the anger you feel can be based in pride. It’s been said that you can tell if you have a servant’s heart by how you react when someone treats you like one.
Resentment and bitterness: when we do not forgive we feel resentment and bitterness. Who are we not to forgive, if God forgives? It’s pride that elevates their sin against us over how we have sinned against others and against God. All of us have sinned and fallen short.
Those are just a couple of emotions amongst many others, but we must be willing to acknowledge that pride is far more pervasive than we realize. It is our pride that keeps us from turning to God for forgiveness, strength, hope, faith, love, and life. Pride can also keep us out of relationships because we are unwilling to open up and authentically share our need for other people.
The only way we can keep on top of pride is to ask the Lord to help us recognize it and then to help us choose humility to keep it in check.
A close shave of humility will help cut down pride – and Lord willing, that’s an ongoing choice we will be willing to make.
Proverbs 11:2
“When pride comes, then comes disgrace, but with humility comes wisdom.”
1 John 2:16
“For everything in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—comes not from the Father but from the world.”
Matthew 23:12
“For those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”