Day 66

It's Day 66 of  The Red Shoe Project.  As I run around town doing errands, I'm wearing the cutest little pair of RED vintage sneakers that my daughter gave me. People seem to love contributing to my RED shoe wardrobe.  Hey, if they fit, I wear them.  BUT even more wonderful to me, is when they wear their RED shoes along with me and share what God is doing in their lives!

As I meet and talk with different people about  The Red Shoe Project, many tell me that the world can be a difficult place to live in these days.  It has it's challenges to say the least.  Darkness is often lurking around the corner. Disappointment and despair are abundant.  Emptiness fills many a soul.


Yet, people are searching...  yes searching for answers.  They are looking for "The Good" in life.  They are starving for things like:  Love,  Joy,  Peace, Patience,  Kindness  Goodness,  Faithfulness,  Gentleness and  Self-Control.    Do such things even exist?   Where are they?  Galatians 5:22  refers to these good things as "The Fruits of the Spirit" and they are found in people who are divinely connected with Christ.

The difficulty is sometimes found in getting people to "consider Christ"... to just look in His direction... to open the Bible and see for themselves.  That opportunity is rarely offered these days in a safe and inviting manner.  So they try everything else that is being offered, first.  I know that all to well because that's what I did.

I still remember the day that someone challenged me to give God a chance in my life.  He asked me if I was willing to give myself 100% to God and see what happened.  I thought to myself, "100%?  That's serious!" Then this little voice in my head said, "What have you got to lose? You've tried everything else.  Why not give God a chance?  Go on... Go for it!"

With that, I said, YES and asked God  to show Himself to me,  and to lead and guide me through life!"

God stepped right up to the plate and took me up on it!  He showed me He was real. And He woo-ed me into an awesome relationship with Himself...  A Divine Partnership that is about to hit the thirty year mark.  That's right, thirty years!  Mind you, "The back door" was always there to walk out of if things didn't pan out... if this "God thing" wasn't all it was made out to be. But no... I've never had a reason, to leave.  I've never even gotten close to that back door. He has proved Himself to me, over and over again.

You know how I even got to that point?  I saw FRUIT in someone's life.  When I went to work out at the gym,  I saw a glow and a joy on an aerobic instructor's face that I couldn't quite shake.  It was so different.  She had something that I didn't... and I wanted it!  I wanted to be around her.  I wanted to figure out what "that glow thing" was all about!

Her name was Cindy.  She brought me to a birthday party and introduced me to some friends. I immediately noticed that they all had that glow too!  They were all so nice.  The next day, I made it a point to go to church with one of them.  At the end of the service, a man asked me if I was a Christian.  My response was...

"Well, yeah... kind of...  sort of... well, maybe,  I'm not so sure."

Of course my mother had always told me that I was a Christian.  But I had a feeling that what this guy was really asking me was  "Am I like THESE Christians? "... and well,  No... I wasn't.  I didn't have that thing... that glow... that joy... that peace that they all seemed to overflow with.  

Well, the rest of the story you know.

So what about you?  

Are you a Christian?  

Maybe it's time to pop on some
Ruby Slippers of your own and consider Christ? ...look in His direction?  ...open the Bible and search for yourself?  Give God a chance?  Ask Him to show Himself to you?

I'm here if you have questions.

Gail

Day 65

Day 65 of The Red Shoe Project finds me in St. Pete, FL bundled up in my warm RED socks, looking at a beautiful view of the beach and surrounding area. From the 10th floor condo, where I'm visiting my sister, it's a beautiful sight.

The weather was cool today for Florida, mid 60s, but the sun has now set, the temperature is dropping significantly, and the wind is howling like a mad man!!!  Somehow that has got me thinking about the "wrath of God."  YIKES!!!  I have to be honest with you, as a Child of the King,  I don't often think about God's wrath.  Personally, I don't want to see Daddy get mad.



As a kid growing up in Arlington Massachusetts, I was the same way with my natural dad.  I can remember a time when I was about eleven.  I must have done something wrong that day, because  (1) I was hiding upstairs in my bedroom,  (as opposed to mingling downstairs with the family),  and (2) my dad called for me to come down... he wanted to talk to me.  I wasn't even half way down the staircase, and the tears were flowing.  I remember my dad saying to me...

 "Why are you crying?  I haven't even said anything yet?"

My dad was not a man to ever yell or get out of control.  And with three women in the house, he was definitely the King of the Castle.

 I was crying because I knew I had disappointed him. I never wanted to disappoint my dad.  He loved me and I loved him.  In fact, he didn't just love me, he totally delighted in me.  It was a good thing to be around my dad.

With God the Father, I 'm exactly the same way... I love to be around him!  And I don't want to see Him upset, (at least not with me),   not because I'm afraid of Him... but because I love him!  So you can understand my surprise in recently having met with several people who were taught that God demands perfection and if you fall short, you are going to hell! Case closed!

Really?  Well, let's re-open the case.  I find it sad that so many people have discontinued their search for God and taken the nearest exit to The World because of unbalanced, erroneous teaching engulfed in religiosity.  "Religiosity" is when it's all about the rules, period!  The result of that is a haunting and dreadful fear of God.

Don't get me wrong.... God is All-Powerful... Great & Mighty... The King of Kings and Lord of Lords! I wouldn't want to fall onto His bad side. With His breath, He could easily blow out an entire country! But God is also The Everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace,  The Wonderful Counselor, The Friend that sticks closer than a brother.  His name is Faithful and True!   Did someone forget to mention that?

So what I'm loving these days is the opportunity to talk with people about the Fullness of God and ALL that He has to offer us... To show them the loving side of God that somehow got overlooked or left out...  To help them search the scriptures to see for themselves who God really is...  To better decipher what's true and what's false...  And to usher them towards the opportunity for a Divine Connection of their own... A Relationship with God, not a Religion!

Red shoes and all,
I'm taking a stand on that!
Gail