I Forgot My Shoes - Blessin' or Lesson?

Disclaimer: These are not my feet.

I forgot my shoes. Yes, I did. I like to drive with my feet au natural!  Some people like their sandals and flip flops. My feet like to kick it naked. (Which is amazing because they are so ugly! Sorry feet. You know it's true.)

A few days ago, I pulled up to plant where I work as a graphic artist, climbed out of the car and suddenly noticed the hard rough gravely texture of our parking lot. I shuffled a few steps and realized, "Silly me! No shoes." So I tiptoed across the asphalt, back to the car, where, after a frantic search...I found nothin'! No shoes anywhere.

I didn't want to be late, so I sat outside in my little blue Ford Contour trying to figure out my next move. I remembered that in one of my more ADD moments, I had found a pair of shoes scrunched up under my front tire a long time ago. At the time, I thought that my son may have dropped them, so I tossed them in the trunk where, like most of the other stuff in there, they would probably never be seen again.

"Why did I do that?" you ask. What? You want reasons? Didn't I just say I was ADD? It was there. So I did it. Then forgot I did it. Squirrel!!!!

I scrambled to the back of my car, threw open the trunk and there they sat peeking out from underneath all the other things I've happened to find and toss in there. (Yes, I have a lot of junk in my trunk. I said that for all of you who were thinking it...  and have too much class and good taste to say it.)

Anyway, I grabbed them, and with great effort, proceeded to successfully squeeze my size 11 feet into these tattered old size 9 1/2 shoes.

Proudly, yet painfully, I dragged myself up the outside stairs, through the plant, and eventually fell into my chair where I immediately ripped the torturous tennis shoes from my throbbing feet! The rest of the day, I spent in my chair not willing to expose my naked feet to the world.

While sitting there, I thought about providence. Who would have known that during some mental break months ago, the strange shoes I collected would be there for me in my time of need. What a blessing!

That was my first thought anyway. Then I came to my senses.

The reality is, bad planning, distraction, and disorganization led to a situation where I had to suffer the painful consequences and embarrassment of wearing shoes that were a size too small so that I could sneak quietly to my seat and avoid my friends and co-workers.

The shoes, painful though they were, may have been a blessing I received, but the situation, was a lesson to be learned.We call them blessings, but sometimes, it's purely mercy! Someone upstairs is having pity on us because of our bad management of time, resources, etc. And that's ok, but we'll never grow if we don't learn to know the difference between a blessin' and an lesson.

We must be careful that, when God pulls us out of the pit we take a moment from the celebration to listen to what He has to say. Can you hear? I think I do. I think I hear a still small voice is saying....

WILL YOU PLEASE STAY AWAY FROM THAT PIT!