Today I took a deep breath and made a big change to our entry way. I threw away a pair of shoes.
These were not just any shoes, though. They originally belonged to me, and at one time they were a
decent-looking, comfortable pair of shoes that I occasionally wore to work. At some point they got some
paint on them and they wound up being a pair of shoes I kept by the door to slip on if I needed to go out
quickly for one reason or another.
The shoes were adaptable for people with feet of different sizes to slip on because of the open-back
style, and since they were conveniently by the door, they became the shoes that just about everyone in
our family felt free to use. More than once, I was ready to put on my shoes and discovered they weren’t
there because someone else had borrowed them. I jokingly began to refer to the shoes as “the universal
shoes.” I don’t know how many times I have chuckled to see my husband wearing these shoes. Once he
even wore them into town to get gas! I’ve caught my teenage grandsons and even my son-in-law
(definitely the last person I would expect to wear them) has borrowed the universal shoes.
It was time for the shoes to go. They had been used to the point that they were literally coming apart. I
should have thrown them away long ago. The front part of one shoe was dangerously loose and could
cause a person to trip.
As I tossed them in the trash today, I began thinking about some other “universal shoes” that all of us as
members of the human race share. The Bible tells us, “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of
God.” (Rom 3:23), and Isaiah 53:6 tells us, “All we like sheep have gone astray, we have turned- every
one- to his own way.” We all wear the universal shoes of sin, and we don’t just slip them on from time
to time—they define the path that we will take and we can’t get rid of them. They are dangerous shoes,
too. God’s Word clearly tells us that the result of sin is death and that “there is a way that seems right
to a man, but its end is the way to death.”
Thankfully, we can be set free from these universal shoes. Jesus came to earth, died, and rose again to
give us victory over sin. Romans 8:2: “For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from
the law of sin and death.” When we trust in Christ, we can have freedom. We can choose a new path of
life. Yes, there will be times when we may slip on those old shoes and choose to wear them, but
because of Christ we have the ability to put those old shoes in the trash and allow Him to direct our
way! We have every reason to be thankful for His intervention!
God has some “new shoes” for us to wear. Ephesians 6:15: “And, as shoes for your feet, having put on
the readiness given by the gospel of peace.” When we trust in Christ, we can put on shoes that give us a
firm footing, a preparedness to walk firmly in the grace of God and in His righteousness. Today, let’s
make sure our footwear is the right footwear, and let’s get rid of those old “universal shoes!”.