Shoes
This is a personal story about shoes. I never actually thought too deeply about shoes until this Christmas holiday when I found myself in my shoes on a mission trip in Kenya, Africa. When you have a twenty hour flight, you have time to think deeply about a lot of things…not the least of which is shoes.
Is there anything more to shoes than just a bunch of leather, rubber, and shoestrings thrown together? Is there really a deeper purpose for them? What if the creator of the shoe really designed them for a special purpose? Wouldn’t that make all the difference in the world?
Well, the truth is that the creator did create them for a special purpose…and that is to be walked in. What good are they if they don’t fulfill their creator’s unique purpose? Well not much good at all.
Our lives are like that. We are not just a bunch of skin, bones, and blood thrown together. Our Creator created us for a special purpose too. And as Christians we find fulfillment in life as we walk in that revealed purpose. God created His people, the church, to go and do and love.
Mission trips have a way of teaching you things that might not be taught any other way. For example, what would it be like to walk in someone else’s shoes? We have a tendency to get real comfortable in our own shoes and never really consider what it’s like to walk in the next guy or girl’s shoes. It’s not comfortable because their shoes might not feel very good if we tried to walk in them.
Shoes can serve as a great reminder throughout the day to think about others and what they are going through. It absolutely blew my mind to try to put myself in the shoes of the Kenyan people that we met. In my shoes, I have to decide what I will eat today. In their shoes, they have to think about ‘will I eat today.’ I go to my closet in my shoes and decide what shirt I will wear today.
In their shoes there is no closet. I decide whether I want bottled or tap water. They decide between puddle water and creek water. In my shoes, I decide what doctor I want to see. In their shoes, they wander how long they will live with AIDS. In my shoes, I can’t even count the people who love me. I can’t imagine a life where my first hug from another person came at age six.
Want to walk in the way you were created for? Try this. Start noticing everybody’s shoes. Everybody you come in contact with, dare to find out what it’s like to walk in their shoes and then respond in the way God leads you to. That will take you on a mission trip of a lifetime. Enjoy the joy of your journey.
