eyebrows...

I've never given much thought to them. They are there, sitting on my forehead, looking like fuzzy caterpillars riding on my eyeglasses. I see some ladies that must go to some extremes to have these little tiny things that look like they drew eyeliner on their forehead. Now, I totally understand those with medical conditions or going through chemotherapy that need to do that (but dark dark brown???) so I'm not making fun of anyone.

However, I go to my cousin's makeup counter to have her help me with brightening my eyes. This extended cold, fall-less winter has got me down. The first thing she does, is come at me with tweezers saying, "You need to tweeze these Charity". But that hurts!! And I sit with tears rolling down my cheeks as she proceeds to 'tweeze' (never, never, say pluck around a cosmetologist/makeup person) more eyebrows than I thought I had on my forehead.

I look in the mirror and think to myself, "hmmm, that does look better". Do you think I can stand to do it to myself? No. I choose a worse torture. I go to a salon and pay someone to put hot wax on my eyebrow and then yank the hairs out by the root. Does it hurt? You bet! But the pain is swift and over within seconds.

Why would I prefer a quick, intense, pain over a few moments of less intense pain or (gasp!) NO pain?

It's kind of like life, having pretty eyebrows.

• You can leave them big and bushy. That's right. Stay comfortable and don't go out of your way to make any changes. Cosmetic or not, if it's painful, don't bother.
• You can tweeze a few hairs out at a time, but I find that if I go it alone, they are uneven, shapeless, and after awhile, I don't see any results.
• You can go hardcore and wax those suckers. The pain is fast and intense. Sometimes your heart starts beating so fast you worry you might pass out from the pain. You are under intense scrutiny (by someone you barely know, if at all), and you will probably walk out of there with your skin looking like you  had an accident with a blow torch. But when the pain subsides, and the redness goes away, you catch a glimpse of yourself in the mirror and say "Wow, that was SO worth the pain". 

We do that in life too right? Like, many of us, don't enjoy pain. What kind of fool would admit to that? So I'm going to just put it out there. When it comes to my health, when it comes to meeting my family's needs, when it comes to my walk with Christ, I want the wax. I don't want to take the easy way out with life. I don't want to go through a little pain everyday. I want to go through it, full throttle. I know that the pain is temporary and when the pain is gone and the redness goes away...the result will be beautiful.

James 1:2 NLT