What We Love The Most

5.27.19—What We Love The Most

Last year, sometime before retiring from my job as music minister, one of my choir members came to church in the most awesome shoes. I asked where she’d gotten them and within 10 minutes I’d ordered a pair from Amazon. Before the summer was over, I’d ordered two more pairs, and just recently I added two more pairs to my collection. I wanted to have all color bases covered.

What’s interesting about this part of my shoe collection is that people have actually noticed it! I’ve been wearing Birkenstocks since the early 1990s. I started wearing them because my brother’s college roommate recommended them and I’ve not stopped because most other shoes hurt my feet. For those of you who know me well, you know that I don’t pay much attention to fashion, so it’s not phased me that Birkenstocks haven’t been popular. But all of a sudden, they are popular again, and people keep noticing and asking about my shoes! I’ve probably told ten people what type of shoes they are and where they can find them. That’s ten more people than have asked about my shoes in ten years!

When people ask, I tell them that they are waterproof Birkenstocks and that they can be found on Amazon. [To be more specific, they are Gizeh EVA sandals, but I never can remember that much.] I share that I like them because they are lightweight, they float, they don’t stink, they aren’t overly expensive, and they come in many different colors. I say that I like that they all fit the same so that the tan line on my foot is consistent. But most of all, I say, I like them because they are comfortable and they support my foot with the footbed that my foot has come to expect. I’m not sure how many people have actually purchased a pair because of my recommendation, but it’s not because I haven’t tried.

Friends: We talk about the things that we experience and value the most. My original choir member had no idea that her telling me about her shoes would result in me purchasing five pairs would result in me telling at least 10 other people about the shoes. This is evangelism—not of the love of Jesus Christ—but of that which we experience and value the most. We talk about shoes, clothes, TV shows, movies, food, phones, vacation destinations, art, parenting techniques, worship styles, health and beauty, cleaning hacks, teaching tools, sports, couponing, politics, and endless other topics because, 1) they are life, and 2) we experience and value them the most.

I think this is natural. I think it is normal to talk about the things we know the most about. But I can’t help but wonder: What if, above all else, we experienced, valued, and talked about love—not of things—not of anything of this world—but of the God who IS Love and who wants us to live in relationship with one another through Christ’s love? Yes. We would need to talk about other things. But what if, at the root of it all, our goal was Love? And what if we refrained from saying anything that doesn’t come from a place of love?

I suppose this may sound silly. But every time I buy a pair of shoes—especially if they are expensive—I pray that God will bless the shoes and the feet that will walk in them. I pray blessings on the places that they will go and I pray that God will use me as I go wherever God leads…

I think maybe I should start praying for the people who ask about my shoes—that God will guide their feet, too—and that together, in Birkenstocks or not, we will carry Love to this world.