Nose Danger
It really happened. A girl in my driver's ed class, notorious for her stuck-up posture (yes, she really would stick her nose up in the air and look down with disdain at us lesser mortals), actually yanked the steering wheel away from her instructor when he tried to help correct her trajectory. It was only by the grace of God that the lesson didn't end in tragedy. That nose!
There are several stories in the Bible where stuck-up noses led to catastrophe. Pharoah, for one. He was the ruler of mighty Egypt. Why should he kowtow to a stick-in-the-mud prophet of an enslaved people? Nose up—danger instigated. We all know how his prideful stance ended.
Mighty Samson comes to mind. Succumbing to the nagging of his lovely Delilah, he opted to reveal to her the secret of his strength. What could go wrong? He was Samson, mighty judge of Israel. Nose up—calamity after calamity. Strength lost, eyes put out, enslaved like the lowest of the low.
Then there was Saul. He let his kingship go to his head, and, nose up, performed a sacrifice that was out of his purview. Kept his pride. Lost his kingdom.
Lesson? It's so easy to give deference to our pride—it can happen without our even realizing what we are doing—but the slippery slope of pride has only one way to go—downward. Pride at the expense of obedience to God always translates into a life marked by loss. We need to keep our eyes open, plead God's help to remain aware of that dangerous path.
Sad to say, the problem often lies in God's blessings. They are real. They bless us. And if we aren't careful, an attitude of "I deserve this, always" can begin to color our thinking, endue us with a sense of entitlement that blinds us to potential problems. Provision, position, prayers answered. Those blessings belong to the child of God. But as beneficiaries of these manifestations of God's grace, we need the wisdom to not let them go to our head, the wisdom to maintain our humility and obedience to God. A turned up nose simply isn't worth it.
"He hath showed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God" (Micah 6:8).
"I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called, with all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love" (Ephesians 4:1-2).
"Likewise, ye younger, submit yourselves unto the elder. Yea, all of you be subject one to another, and be clothed with humility: for God resisteth the proud and giveth grace to the humble" (1 Peter 5:5).
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