In yesterday’s DWOD, you read about how yours truly made the choice to keep a pack of noname, noglide razors that were, to put it mildly, unpredictable.

Sometimes the razor would leave a cut behind, sometimes just a nick. Other times, it would take a bit of skin with it or leave a scrape as a memento.

It was not pretty.

Surprisingly, I did not have the heart to simply return to vendor.

Blame it on Indian frugality. Or credit it to Christian compassion.

Either way, the razors stayed.

How do you make the best of this not-so-good situation? The Brain went to work. It was quite obvious that the thickness of the facial hair was a tad too much for the thin blades to handle. Hence the nicks, cuts, bruises and scrapes.

Soooo, how does one match the thinness of the hair to the blades? Aha!

Enter the little-used electric razor, a birthday gift dating back circa 2006 A.D. Here is the solution spit out by The Brain.

Let electric razor mow down as much of the stubble as possible on a couple of quick passes. Then apply the thin blades of the manual razor to the leftover thin layer.

Voila! Now you have a close shave. Bonus…you get to keep and use the mediocre razors.

Noglides saved. Dollars too 🙂

That, beloved DWOD subscriber, is how the noglides ended up getting used…every last one of them.

Holy Spirit used this incident to remind me of the mandate the Father has given us to “strengthen the feeble hands, steady the knees that give way…” (Isaiah 35:3)

The apostle Paul translates the metaphorical into the practical when he writes in Romans 15:1-2: “Those of us who are strong and able in the faith need to step in and lend a hand to those who falter, and not just do what is most convenient for us. Strength is for service, not status. Each one of us needs to look after the good of the people around us, asking ourselves, ‘How can I help?’” (The Message)

A quote that is attributed to Mahatma Gandhi, Winston Churchill, Harry Truman and Pope John Paul II among others goes like this: “The greatness of a nation is measured by how it treats its weakest members.”

In his parable of the sheep and the goats (Matthew 25:31-46), Jesus surprises the nations on Judgment Day by pointing out how it was He they chose to serve or not serve when they encountered the hungry, the thirsty, the stranger, the naked, the sick and the imprisoned.

“Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.”
Conversely, “Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.”

Then He shocks everyone by saying that the latter group “will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.”

Wow! That is how significant it is for us to ensure that the “weakest members” among us are not neglected.

Who is the “noglide” in your life that you are called to support? Who is the “weak” one whose hands and knees you are called to strengthen? Who is the “least of these” that you are called to serve?

May I suggest that one critical way in which the greatness of a follower of Jesus can be measured is by how we treat the noglides in our midst.

Ditto for the Church. Your business. Your family. Your city. And yes, even your country.