If the Shoe Fits

This time I’m adding a disclaimer: the following story did not happen to me; it happened to my mother, who gave me permission to use this. I only make this distinction because I’ve already admitted my tendency to wear shirts backwards and/or inside-out, and I don’t want you to think I’m entirely inept at dressing myself. We all make mistakes!

Last Sunday morning while sitting in the auditorium, my mother momentarily removed her shoes. When I glanced over, I thought the insides of her shoes looked weird, but I dismissed it as the angle of the light. Sunday evening at home, I saw the shoes once again because she had removed them.

“So, you wore two different shoes to worship today?” I asked.
“Yes, I wore white shoes this morning and black shoes this evening,” she replied.

“That’s not exactly what I meant,” I said as I pointed to the white shoes. “You wore two different white shoes.”

Sure enough, the inside of the shoes didn’t match…because the shoes themselves didn’t match. I can imagine while rummaging around in a dark closet, the shoes would look similar. While they were both white shoes, they had slightly distinguishing characteristics, namely the heels.

Typically speaking, when we don our shoes each morning, we make a choice on what pair to wear. None of us would intentionally wear shoes that don’t match. Matthew 6:24 admonishes, “No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon” (NKJV).

Just as we choose our shoes, we must also choose where our allegiances lie. It’s a clear-cut choice, all laid out in black and white. You choose one or the other. There’s no middle ground. How many of us get dressed in the morning, intent on choosing to serve God, only to forget that choice later on that day? In doing so, it becomes as if we are wearing shoes that don’t match. We conflict ourselves.

Even though Abraham Lincoln is oft-attributed with the quote, “A house divided against itself cannot stand,” Jesus used this phrase to rebuke the hypocritical Pharisees (Mark 3:25). Where do your loyalties lie? Will your actions today ultimately match your choice?