"Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself."
Our pastor began a new series today called Love Loud. The main focus is for us to learn to love people as Christ did, to love people that are hard to love, to love when it makes us uncomfortable. Our challenge as we left was to leave our shoes at the altar, to be donated to someone who needs them through Samaritan's Feet. All kinds of thoughts ran through my head...Is it still raining outside? How much did I pay for these shoes? Do I have another pair of shoes similar that I can wear when I'm missing these? Am I wearing socks that will protect my feet as a cross the parking lot with two children and all the assorted paraphernalia that I carry for them? Ultimately, I gave away my shoes. Not because they weren't my absolute favorites or because I knew one of my friends' husbands would probably volunteer to bring my car to the door if it was still raining, but because it was the right thing to do. It was symbolic. I want to love people as Christ did. I want to show that love spontaneously, even if it means doing something that inconveniences me a little bit. And as I traipsed from my car to the house, through the puddle that forms in my parking space whenever it's been raining for longer than 30 seconds, I thought about how I may only have ten pairs of shoes now, but somewhere on this earth, one of God's children will now have a single pair of shoes.
Wow! I am so impressed, Audra. That would have been a super difficult charge for me. What a amazing image of love to see all those shoes at the alter. P.S. It makes me think of all my shoes hung on the walls in that house Stephanie and I shared, summer of freshman year:)
ReplyDelete