Ministerial Memos

There was an uneasy feeling with my brand spanking new shoes.

I don’t own a lot of shoes. I’ve heard of those with a glut of them like the former Philippian first lady, Imelda Marcos, and her 1,220-pairs. How do you even wear so many – change shoes every hour? Tragically, for her, she had to leave them behind when she and her husband were kicked out of the palace in the mid-eighties. Inquiring minds want to know if they were “kicked out” with some of her shoes. She did make a political comeback as a representative in the national congress in 1995 and 2010. Every time she ran, she was a shoe-in!

My closet contains four or five pairs – everyday, hack-around shoes; a few dress pairs; and sneakers. Oh, I’ve got outdoor work shoes in the mudroom.

The new pair are boat shoes. Not that I own a boat or even go boating, but I just like the look and  feel and have worn this type for years. They’re the shoe staple. After wearing these new shoes for a few hours, however, I noticed there was something amiss with the right shoe. Something was wrong. Granted, that foot tends to be larger than the other especially later in the day. It’s attached to the leg that suffered a blood clot on a trip to India. So, it swells a bit. But something was wrong with the shoe. I only hoped I hadn’t worn them too long so that I couldn’t take them back.

Our feet are pretty important – we need good shoes, or, as some have been known to say – good understanding.

The “Wizard of Westwood,” John Wooden, who won ten NCAA basketball championships in twelve years as the coach of UCLA said his first lesson to the incoming freshmen players was how to put on their socks. The players he recruited were some of the best in the country, yet instead of working on shooting or strategies, it was shoes and socks. If they weren’t put on correctly, he’d sound off, blisters could form sidelining a player.

As we need good shoes for walking around, we must have good understanding for walking through life. Knowledge and wisdom need to be paired together. Both of which come from experience but, even more important, it is generated via our walk with the Lord. The closer we are to Him, the more time we spend with Him, the greater understanding we will have. It was Solomon who noted that memorizing portions of scriptures can give one more insight than their teachers.

Oh, I don’t have to take the shoes back. The problem was that the end of the leather shoe lace was stuck under the shoe’s tongue. What I need to do is learn how to properly tie my shoes.