New Shoes

I remember when I was young, the days leading up to the first day of school for the new year. Mom would take my brothers and I to town to buy new school clothes and supplies. Now new pants and shirts and all the other stuff was great but what got me excited was new tennis shoes. Brand new, sparkling white tennis shoes! I can even remember the smell of a new pair, right out of the box, unblemished by any wear and tear just waiting to be worn.
I'd take them home and store them away greatly anticipating the first day of school and putting them on. Finally the day would come and off to school I'd go with my new backpack, supplies, jeans, coat and of course my new shoes. Oh how I'd carefully avoid any newly cut grass, sidestep puddles, and jump over and around anything that would tarnish my new shoes. At the end of the day, I'd wipe them down and place them back under my bed until the next day when I'd pull them out of the box, wipe them down and start everything all over again.
Thing was this. That routine grew old and tedious very quickly. Eventually trying to keep up with scuffs, scrapes and stains became too much and the shine began to fade. The newness had worn off, the excitement had diminished and the everyday toil began to take its toll on my tennis shoes.
We go through this in our Christian walk too don't we? Some of us live our lives in Spirit filled spurts. One moment we're moving mountains and the next we feel like we're living under one. My shoes would began to get dingy, muddy, worn out and down right even stink sometimes. Then guess what? My mom would gather them up and into the washer they'd go. A few hours after soaking, washing and basking in the sun, my worn out shoes looked as good as new!
God does this for us too.

"Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow." Psalm 51:7

We often start to lose our shine too. We pick up scuffs in our lives due to hard times, acquire scrapes from rough relationships and get stained because of sin in our lives. We start to lose sight of the "newness" that we experienced when we first met Jesus. Eventually like I did with my shoes, maintaining the shine gets to be very tiring and we often forget what "new shoes" feel like and look like. But then God gathers us up, soaks us in His Love, and washes us in the cleansing blood of Jesus and we too become new. God sets us out to bask in His Son and we are prepared for another wear.

"Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life." Romans 6:4

Today do you find yourself a little worn out by the everyday toils? Do you feel like you've lost your shine? Ask God to "gather you up" and cleanse you in only the way that He can. If you find yourself living absent of the joy and excitement that you once had, ask God to "Create in me a clean heart...And renew a steadfast spirit within me."
Psalm 51:10

Maybe it's time for some new shoes?

WHEN IT'S SLOW!

We are an anxious bunch of people, wouldn’t you agree? We live in a world and in a way that shouts, “We want it fast, we want it now!” We hate to wait for things. Think about it and you’ll agree…we hate to wait! We hate to wait in traffic. We hate to wait in the drive thru. We hate to wait for that “something” to arrive in the mail. We hate to wait for our paycheck. We hate waiting every week for Friday to come. We’re in a hurry and want things to happen just when we want them to. But the saying is certainly true, GOOD THINGS COME TO THOSE WHO WAIT! I would go a step further if I may?

GOOD THINGS COME TO THOSE WHO WAIT ON THE LORD!!

“Yet the Lord longs to be gracious to you; He rises to show you compassion. For the Lord is a God of justice. Blessed are all who wait for Him.” Isaiah 30:18

God knows all things wouldn’t you agree? So if we agree that He knows all things then we must also agree that knowing all things also means knowing when to allow all things to pass. God is not some makeshift fortuneteller. He’s the Teller of All Things! God knows all things, sees all things and holds all things in the palms of His Mighty Hands. Now that’s being in “Good Hands”. Trusting in the Lord also means trusting Him to orchestrate all aspects of our lives.
You see we are like fine desserts. God wants to control what goes into the mix, always thinking ahead to the finished product. He knows just the right amounts of trials to allow, the correct bits of sorrow and discipline to add and is always…. always mixing in LOVE, producing a fine and beautiful dessert. Unfortunately what happens is we try and rush the procedure trying to cut corners, skimp on ingredients and half the “baking time”. The result? A disappointing lump of cake, undercooked, flat and simply unfilling!

“Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord” Psalm 27:14

We all know how hard it is to be patient when urgency overwhelms us and the floodgates of anxiety are rushing in but know that the Lord is working up a fine and beautiful product in you. He knows just what you need, when you need it and WILL NOT FAIL YOU! So as the Psalmist says, “Take Heart!”, God’s in the kitchen and it’s looking good!!