Would you do it?

Did you know it's not illegal to drive without your shoes? True stuff.

At church on Sunday, our pastor did a service about sacrifice in honor of memorial day. He said a good way to measure where you stand and where your heart is at in terms of service and sacrifice is how you react when someone asks something of you. He then encouraged the entire church to make a sacrifice right then and there; our shoes. He asked us to leave behind our shoes so they could be donated to the Soles for Souls program, which will distribute the shoes around the corner and around the world to people who have no shoes. My initial reaction when he asked this was "Really, you want me to give you my shoes? My SHOES? MY shoes?" Immediately my thoughts turned to how self-important am I that I can't give the shoes off my feet to someone who needs them much more than I do? The inconvenience of it is so minor compared to the good it will do for someone else. Sure I have to walk across the parking lot barefoot, but from there I will climb into my car, sit on a cushy seat, and RIDE the rest of the way home. (with the luxury of sunglasses, a radio, and car windows down giving me a nice breeze on the warm day to boot) Good grief, of course I'll leave my shoes! The shoes I left were not new, but they were in great condition and they were shoes that I really liked wearing in the summer. Regardless of how much I liked my shoes, I'm pretty sure God would tell me that it's more important to love people (even the ones you don't know on the other side of the world) than to hang on to stuff that means nothing. I wasn't exactly planning to take those shoes with me when I die. (or any shoes for that matter!)

After thinking about that service for a couple days, I have started to realize just how privileged our society is. I've always know we have it better than so many others around the world, but I don't think I've given it much thought as to what exactly that means. What is it that I enjoy on a daily basis that others only dream about? And most importantly, what else can I do or sacrifice for others in need?

If you are interested in donating shoes, here is the Soles for Souls website:

http://www.soles4souls.org/

Also, Eastlake Community Church will be collecting shoes on Thursday evening from 7-9pm


http://www.eastlakecc.com/