Serious talk about Shoes

Perhaps it was Dorthy in the Wizard of Oz, or maybe it was the Meryl Streep in The Devil Wears Prada  but I am pretty convinced there is something magical about shoes.  They have a direct impact on attitude, I am convinced.  You put on a pair of flip flops, with or without embellishment, and you just have that footloose and fancy free feeling that came with being a teenager on summer vacation.   Some nice heels with a little bling and you are a starlet, gracing the world with your presence.  More likely for me would be the sneaker, sandals or most currently, the combination of the two, is the 'bring it on I got this' look.  Should I show up wearing slippers though, someone needs to send me home with a police escort if necessary.  Shoes, I am telling you, it is all about the shoes.

So imagine my surprise to see the man walking up the sidewalk in Nashville, strolling along at a pretty good clip, not wearing any shoes.  I don't know the man of course, and it would have been inappropriate for me to roll down my window and ask him where his shoes might be, but I really wanted to know why he was shoeless.  I could imagine all kind of crud that he must be walking on and over and through on his way to where ever he was going.  I worried about him all that day and he is still hanging out in the back of my mind.  Why, he could cut his feet, or pick up a disease, or wander through some horrible fluids of one kind or another.  Where were the man's shoes for goodness sake!

Then I got to wondering about places where people don't wear shoes.  I am a follower of Katie Davis and I have read her book Kisses from Katie.  I am aware that there are many people without shoes, and I know that they pick up parasites and all kind of infection from roaming without protection.  I know that shoes are often a luxury in places where survival is not a given.  Still, I can't even wrap my mind around a way of life where there are no magical shoes, or the ease to go replace those that are no longer wearable, or I  don't like.  I need to wrap my mind around it though, anything that bugs you that much must be a call from the Holy Spirit.

So I googled Soles4Souls today.  I discovered that not only does this ministry get shoes and clothing

to people who need them, they also create jobs by opening thrift stores so that people will not only get what they need, they can earn money in the process.  They also have an app for your phone that allows you to tack the miles you walk, run or bike and a donation of .25$ is given to help support this ministry.  You know, I don't know a thing about Soles4Souls., I don't know who runs it or what they believe or how effective they are, so I guess this isn't an official endorsement.   I just know that I am somehow concerned about shoes and people who don't have them, and I need to get some good exercise daily, and the combination might just be what the doctor ordered.

We get these prompts from time to time, and I believe they are doorways into partnering with the Holy Spirit for the sake of the Kingdom.  I don't know where this particular pathway leads, but I am putting on my journeying shoes and we will see. 

Thank you Mr. Shoeless Guy, I think I owe you one.

Comfort in Discomfort

What a season we are having, Church!

Just between us, this call to radical hospitality is exhausting, isn't it?  Every Sunday morning we are expected to be on the lookout for all these new people, welcome them and even give them our seats if they wish to sit where we ALWAYS sit.  Everyone will wonder if I am even in church if they don't see me sitting in the same place!  Worse, sometimes I don't even know all of the news because I am on greeter detail, and everyone expects me to talk to all the new people.  Thank goodness I am not a greeter every week!  Still during the meet and greet, I feel like I need to be looking for the new people, because someone will bring it up in my small group.  Going to church recently has just been a lot more work than I remember.


In addition now there is this need to find people who don't know Jesus, when I have spent all of my adult life avoiding them.  I was supposed to choose my friends wisely, remember?  You become like those you are around, I have been told hundreds of times.  I was very intentional about finding good Christian friends.  I love being with people who study the bible and want to talk about God!  Now I am being challenged to find people who don't know God and develop a relationship with them.  I tell you, it is wearing me out.  Have you noticed that people who don't know Jesus don't even care about how often I read my bible, go to church or even my very spiritual small group??? 

Studying Luke's Gospel is also a challenge.  It turns out I can't even invite my friends to a party, I have to invite people who can never throw a party on their own.  I am supposed to go find the lost, friendless, disabled, poor.  They are the people I need to be inviting to church, to the picnics, to my home.  I just don't really know that many people who are poor, or friendless and I worry about people with disabilities.  After all, what if something happens?  Will I know how to help?

Who is the center of my life, I am being asked.   It's Jesus, isn't it?  I read the scripture, I pray, I go to worship regularly, I give to the church, I have even written checks to support missions.  Surely God is the center of my life, Church.  Surely!

Only, there is something that's bothering me about the Gospel...I mean, Jesus does seem to make friends with some odd people.  Jesus does say some hard things to the leaders in the church that sometimes make me a little uncomfortable.  Jesus implies that we all have a cross to bear.   There have been some challenges in my life that I was sure might be the cross He referred to, but now I am wondering if there was more.  In fact, I am beginning to feel very uncomfortable.

I am finding less and less to support the idea that worship should be for me.  I can find nowhere in the scripture where my preferences trump others.  As I read about Paul and Barnabas and all of the first followers of Jesus, I can't find a good example of gathering in a group of believers and shutting out the world.  Even when it was a life or death situation, they still talked about Jesus.  I am more uncomfortable all the time.

What a season, Church!  Why couldn't I have remained happy in my own little Christian world?  Why on earth am I called to such a time as this?  Because I have been blessed beyond measure and I am being invited to help see God's Kingdom come, God's will be done?  Because I have been grafted into the Body of Christ, and as a child of God I can afford to be uncomfortable, since my security is absolute?  Because I have been shaped and formed in the image of Christ for the sake of others?  

You know, those seems like a valid reason.  Being uncomfortable is...uncomfortable, but it is a small sacrifice compared to what we have been given, Church.  How wonderful that God calls us to discomfort together.  Life will be different in the days ahead, and no one likes change.  Still, what if we are the people who, for such a times as this, transform the world?  Would that be worth some discomfort?  I think so, and my grandchildren will think so too. 

Discomfort may be a new spiritual discipline.  Or an old one revisited.  It may even look good on us!