Have you seen my shoes?
Need to start out with the disclaimer that the only blogging I have ever done has been through my middle school math remediation blog. So if I ever diverge off into a one-step algebraic equation with fractions, just suffer through it and I’ll get back on track.
Ok on with the blogging.
First off, for the record, I hate going barefoot. Can’t stand it. I hate the feel of grass on my feet, and I shudder at the mere thought of walking around the house barefoot. (My wife who has strong hippie tendencies enjoys laughing and taunting me over this.) Let’s just say my future is full of black socks and sandals!
So I’m sure you can imagine my shock when I found myself at church two weeks ago taking off my shoes and feeling more in tune with God than I had in a long long time. My pastor, preaching about looking for “explosions of heaven around us,” challenged that all too often we miss encountering God on a day to day to basis. We don’t miss out on these God moments because we aren’t looking for Him, but because we fail to recognize a burning bush as anything more than just that, a burning bush. So for the second half of the service we were challenged to remove our shoes and recognize that any time spent in the presence of God was time spent on holy ground. The tactile stimulus of standing in the middle of church barefoot worshiping God was enough to overwhelm me to tears for the first time in years.
I am in my early 30’s and so far I have found my 30’s to be a very interesting stage of life. I feel I am constantly trying to figure out my “place in life.” I’m sure most of you all are going through or have gone through a similar transition. This past year in particular has been an amazing year and I have found God’s fingerprints on everything. The funny thing is that wasn’t what brought me to tears. Having been raised in a reformed church I almost clinically expect to see God at work. In fact I often take solace in the fact that I have been “chosen by God.” What brought me to tears was the recognizing a burning bush for what it really is…Explosions of heaven.
I’m not sure if I’m ready to go running around barefoot kicking a hacky sack quite yet, but maybe I’ll go with out the black socks every now and then.
