The Ring in the Nose

"The fear of man lays a snare, but whoever trusts in the Lord is safe." (Proverbs 29:25)

A snare is not a warning. It is a trap, and a trap exists to hold you in place so that something outside you can decide what happens next. Scripture calls the fear of man a snare, and the oldest readers pressed the picture further: the snare is not only a trap but a lead, a ring set through the nose. That is why the ring is there in the nose of the bull. It is not ornament. It is control. An animal strong enough to break a man in half is walked wherever the herdsman wills, by the softest part of its face, because the alternative hurts more.

Fearing what other people think of you is that ring. And here is what fools us: it does not feel like a trap. It feels like a carrot. It feels as though something good is just ahead, and if we can gather a little more approval, a little more of their good opinion, we will finally be able to rest. So we lean forward and take one more step, head down, and go where we are led. The carrot is the disguise. The ring is the mechanism.

You will not feel the ring. That is the whole genius of it. No one who is led by the nose feels the ring. He feels only the pull, and he names it ambition, or service, and sometimes he even names it love. Only trust unhooks it, because the one who trusts the Lord is no longer for sale to the room. So ask the question that reaches the bottom of it, and answer it honestly. Who has been walking you around?