Someone Else's Boots

Boots! I love to wear boots during the fall and winter as much as I love to wear my flip-flops during the summer.

When I saw this pair of boots at a consignment store I picked them up to check the size. They were a size and a half to small.

Still…

I put my foot in them and surprisingly, other than being a little tight, they fit. I rushed over to the mirror and admired the way they looked with my jeans. I was really liking those boots.

I was tempted to buy them even though buying boots is not in my budget right now. Times are tight and buying them would have made it tighter.

Still, I battled back and forth, even after my right foot started to go numb from lack of circulation. I just kept stretching my feet hoping to make the tightness go away.

Then a thought drifted through my head. You’re trying to wear someone else’s shoes.

I felt a bit uncomfortable with that and took them off. There was a lady looking at shoes and I asked her what size she wore. It was the same size as the boots in my hand. I gave them to her and they looked great on her and fit too.

She didn’t want them, but still they were made for someone her size, not mine.

That thought hasn’t left my mind since that day.

Not when I went for a walk yesterday and admired the beautiful houses and started to imagine what it would be like to entertain for holiday’s in places like I was seeing.

No, the thought became louder then. You’re trying to wear someone else’s shoes.

I stared down at the sidewalk littered with beautiful red and yellow leaves and didn’t turn my head to the left or the right because of the temptation of envying what these people had.

It’s really easy during struggles to start to desire what is in other people’s lives.

When it seems God’s answer is “wait’ or “no,” it’s easy to become discontent, lose hope, and get frustrated.

Like my Dad said, God’s seems to be testing your faith and you just have to get through the next couple weeks.

It’s easy to say I will follow you God or I believe in everything Your Word says when things are going really good. It’s easy to encourage others, praise Him, talk about Him.

But when that road leads you into a dark tunnel that looks like there is not a light at the end of it that’s when faith is tested. Faith is grown. Faith is made strong.

I often wondered how Paul and Silas sang praises after they were beaten and put in stocks in a dark gross prison after being obedient and telling the world about Jesus. Yes, I know it comes from a faith that was built and from the power of the Holy Spirit within in them, yet it still amazes me they were able to do it.

I mean, they could have said, “Look at where we are after what we’ve done for Jesus. And look at the other believers, home, eating with their families.”

They could have.

But, they didn’t, they sang praises, and in that dark prison cell God did a mighty tremendous work. He saved the guy who ran the prison and his entire family. They were even nice to Paul and Silas.

There are tons of stories in the Bible where people are put in the most terrible situations, and they keep the faith, then God steps in and show His glory.

The most important time for all history is reading about how Jesus is hanging on a cross. Beat to a pulp, nails pounded in his hands and feet, and naked.

He could’ve said, Father, forget it, this is too much for me. Change of plans. Instead, He said, Father, forgive them…

Forgive them?!

Soon after, He died… after all of that, He dies.

But once again, God came in to a dark situation, darker than we can even probably comprehend, and Jesus rose from the dead. He stepped in and showed His glory.

Because of that dark moment… all of us who believe won’t suffer for what we’ve done because Jesus did. He paid the price. He saved us from paying the price of our sin by paying it for us.

So now, while I’m walking down this part of the road that seems dark, and I’d like to wear someone else’s shoes for awhile (although someone’s else’s life may look good, but we all have our own set of problems) I can believe that if Jesus is willing to die for me, and save me for eternity, then He has to have a plan to come in and show His glory.

Believing is where my faith is built. Holding on to who He is no matter how dark times seem is a faith work out.

2 Corinthians 12:8-10

New International Version (NIV)

⁸ Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. ⁹ But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. ¹⁰ That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.