The yard shoes go to church

Last Wednesday night, I was extremely tired.  It was that kind of tired where all I could think about was snuggling in my comfy bed and watching nothing but the back of my eyelids for several hours.  Pushing myself through it, I got ready for church, decided what shoes to wear, and put them near the front door so they would be waiting for me as I dashed out the door.  I had on a top in browns, green and tan with blue jeans, so I picked cute tan sandals with a large tan rosette-looking decoration on top.

Since I was now ready, I sat down at my computer to try to write a little before I left for church.  Several minutes later I looked at the clock and realized I needed to leave immediately, or risk being late.  Late is something I do not like to be so I jumped up, grabbed my bag, slipped shoes on and in seconds, I was on my way.  The parking lot was crowded, so I parked in back, in a darkened area and walked towards the front door.  Just as I was crossing the threshold, I glanced down and was horrified to find that I had mistakenly slipped on my nasty yard shoes.  They are lovely grey and pink croc flip flops that have seen their better days.  They are several years old and adorned with paint splatter.  I was so embarrassed.  I expressed my distress to my friend, who was greeting folks at the front door and he said, “No one will even notice”.  This was the answer I would expect coming from a man’s perspective so it didn’t allay my mortification in the least.

I made it to my seat without detection (I think).  I stood there through praise and worship, hoping no one saw my feet, which admittedly is not what I should have been thinking about.  When we sat down I did my best to hide them under my seat.  As embarrassed as I was, I was also angry with myself that I was prideful enough to care so much about my mistake.  The scripture came to me from Ephesians 6:15 about having your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace.  I smiled because of the ridiculousness of my worries and because it’s just like God to remind me of the important things.

As long as my spiritual feet are shod with the gospel of peace, which means that symbolically I have put on peace as part of my spiritual armor, I am armed with the peace that comes from the Good News.

My family got a good laugh when I got home and shared my blunder but throughout the week, I have been thinking about feet and my walk and how and where my walk should take me and how I prepare for that.  So, it just goes to show that even in our silliness, we often find a lesson.