Exploding Slippers
Exploding Slippers
The slippers exploded out from under me.
It would have been a normal game of chase with our youngest son, Parker, but for the fact I neglected to change my shoes. I always wear house shoes (which is really just a manly term for slippers) when I’m inside because I’m old and my feet hurt if I go barefoot. So when Parker ran out the front door hollering for me to chase him, I should have changed shoes before engaging his game. Instead, I slowly walked out the front door in my slippers.
Parker was giddy with excitement that the chase was on, but I continued my slow walk at first until the moment he glanced away. That was what I had been waiting for, and I burst into a full-speed sprint toward him! The plan worked . . . until it didn’t.
Within a few strides, I was close to catching Parker. But then my slippers literally exploded out from under me. The soles collapsed, the right slipper was thrown off and over my head behind me, and the left one was even more problematic in that the sole slipped off the side of my foot but did not come completely off. The result was a high-speed (and yet somehow slow-motion) crash to the pavement.
It would have been hilarious to watch, but unfortunately it ended with the back of my head smacking into the pavement. Not exactly the ideal situation for a middle-aged man with a history of concussions!
It was weeks before the knot on my head finally disappeared. But the lesson of that day remains with me, and I offer it to you today:
Being ready for the adventure God has for you requires more than a decision: It requires preparation.
Your God has instructed you to, “Go and make disciples” (Matt. 28:19-20). As a follower of Jesus, there is only one appropriate response: You must go!
The course of action is simple and straight-forward, but you also have a duty to figurately put your shoes on as you walk out that door! Ephesians 6 is the familiar passage that outlines the armor of God, and in verse 15 you are told to have “your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace.”
In other words, put your shoes on to chase the adventure God has for you! Better yet, keep them on!
It is a wonderful thing to be used by God! In fact, it is the only way to truly live! But if you dash out into that hostile mission field with your spiritual slippers on, your readiness is going to explode out from underneath you. Your mad dash will end with a crash to the ground!
Your readiness for the adventure comes from putting on the gospel of peace! Some translations say, “having your feet shod.” I rather like that translation because of the visual image of a shoe that is both strong and permanently attached! It provides the wearer with the ability to immediately pick up and run at a moment’s notice, and also the strength to sustain the road ahead!
How about you? Are your shoes on? Are your feet shod? Is the gospel of peace affixed to you? Or are you still wearing slippers?
Your mission is to go. Slippers won’t do the job. They will explode out from underneath you. Put your shoes on. Leave them on. They will prepare you, protect you, and carry you into all that God has prepared in advance for you (Eph. 2:10)!