Spiritual Shoes

At the age of 16, I got a job at the local Kinney shoe store as a shoe salesman. We had to wear a coat and tie and look like we actually knew how to measure feet and sell shoes. We used shoehorns and had people place their feet on a little stool with a sloping rubberized section where we would take a measurement and conduct the sale.

One day a woman came in to get a new pair of formal heels for a special event. I asked to measure her feet to find the right size. She said she knew her size and did not need a measurement. I trusted her judgment and brought out the size 5 she requested.  From the start it was obvious she needed at least a 6.5 or 7. I tried my best to shoe horn her foot into the 5, but finally gave up when I realized it was an impossible task. In a moment of frustration when I was about to dismantle her illusion the woman said, “These are fine. I’ll take them. They just need a little time to break in”.  I wished her well and off she went with a pair of shoes that only fit a person who lived in her mind.

I learned a lesson that day. We are not always good at personal evaluation. Pride can get in the way. Illusions of who we want to be can cloud our interpretation of reality. And stark, in-your-face, evidence does not always persuade us out of our delusions. The woman in the shoe store taught me it is better to like who you are than to try and be someone else – like a woman convinced she had Cinderella feet or a man with an over-sized ego who still lives like he is the star high school athlete of yesteryear when that season of life ended decades ago. We all have altered realities of our personal image that need an occasional injection of truth. 

Today, ask God to reveal the real you - the one who fits into the right pair of spiritual shoes. You have been uniquely created for a special purpose. God has somewhere He wants to take you and wearing the wrong spiritual shoes will cripple your ability to make that journey.