Have you ever had a hole in your boot?
If you haven't, let me tell you it is no picnic.
Sometimes the only way one finds this hole is when one's foot gets wet...INSIDE the boot.
This happened to me the other morning.
I was feeding calves when I thought I felt something weird inside my left boot.
It wasn't a definite wet feeling...my little toe just felt a little chilly.
I chalked it up to the drop in temperatures overnight and the thin socks I had grabbed that morning. I figured that my foot would warm up as my body woke-up and I moved around in the barn.
I went about dishing out the milk to the younger calves and making sure everyone had an adequate grain supply.
When I finally headed to the house for breakfast, I found the reason for my chilly toes.
I had water in my boot!
My socks were not sopping wet but they were not dry either.
I was glad that I was finished with chores and didn't have to wear the hole-y boots the rest of the day.
Have you ever ignored something?
Have you ever had something bug you, and instead of taking care of it you went about business as usual?
You might have even thought, It's not that bad...I can deal with this later...no reason to interrupt my plans just to take care of this little hassle....
No, my toes weren't cold enough to cause any damage like frost-bite.
No, my toes weren't cold enough to cause any damage like frost-bite.
Nevertheless, if I had gone all day with cold wet feet there might have been some sort of repercussions for it...
Can this apply to life on a spiritual level?
Is there something wrong that I know I need to take care of?
Something that might not seem very big but just isn't right?
I feel the prick of the Holy Spirit telling me that something is wrong, but I ignore Him.
I think to myself that I can wait.
I can take care of the problem later.
It's not going to make a big difference if I deal with it now or later...it's not THAT bad.
Maybe it'll even go away.
But it doesn't go away.
Instead a bigger mess can occur.
I was fortunate that I didn't have anything besides water inside my boot. If the hole was bigger or if I had had to do some cow work that morning, I could have had something else in my boot...I'll leave that up to your imagination ;)
(Cow work - sorting cows that need to go into a different pen, group, etc.)
Ignoring the problem is never the answer.
In reality it hardly ever goes away...
Reality: Fortunate for my toes, Mom keeps new boots on hand so I was able to switch them out for night chores.
Spiritually: Jesus has new "boots" on hand for me.
He wants me to take care of my problem right away; He is always standing by to help me do just that.
However, He knows that I won't always do what I'm supposed to do.
Therefore, He has made provision for "wet toes."
Hole-less boots = dry happy toes :)
Same goes for spiritual things.
Trust me.
(Photo curtesy of nathanrandall, "grandpa's boots" found on flickr.com, CC some rights reserved)
