Gum On My Shoe....

I don’t know about you, but it is frustrating to me to be walking along intentionally going somewhere and step in a big wad of chewing gum that someone has haphazardly thrown or dropped on the ground somewhere. It is next to impossible to get off. You dig through the tracks of your shoe with a stick, knife, your key or anything else you can think of to get it off of your shoe. You rub that shoe in the grass or dirt or gravel or pavement just to give it that extra attempt of cleaning those tracks out. Now all along the way while doing this we are having a few good talks out loud with the person that we will most likely never know that deposited said gum. You know what I’m saying is true!
 

Life is kind of like that gum on our shoes. We can be walking along doing fine on our way to somewhere and out of nowhere we step into a mess. May be our marriage relationship, our family relationship, our work relationships/peers, ministry relationships, financial issues, health issues, loss of a loved one, etc., etc. The list could go on and on.

 

If you have stepped into a mess in your life lately, may I suggest we learn some lessons from the experience of “gum on our shoe?”

 

• Stop – we don’t keep walking believing the gum is just going to fall off. It’s gum! It isn’t going to fall off! 
• Stop and assess your situation. If we are sensitive to spirit of God in us we know when something isn’t right. 
• Do your part – get off as much of the gum as you can with your stick, knife, keys, rubbing it on the grass, gravel, pavement, etc. (smile)
• Take the steps to reconcile your part.... confess it to God, seek His forgiveness, admit your part to others and ask their forgiveness. Note: you are not responsible for whether they forgive you or not. You are responsible as a child of God to ask for forgiveness, if needed.  
• Now keep walking – eventually the wear of walking will clean those tracks out.
• Trust God after you have gotten honest with yourself about the mess, confessed and asked for forgiveness.  Now trust Him as you keep walking and He will clean the rest of those tracks out.
• Pray – pray for those that haven’t figured out what a trash can is for regarding gum. (smile)
•  Pray for those in your life that have been a part of the mess, and more importantly choose to forgive them…whether they ever ask for it or not.   

Luke 23:34

And Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” And they cast lots to divide his garments.

 Wow! The contrast in the verse is incredible! Jesus is opening the door to eternal life for them as He dies on the cross, and they are gambling for His clothes. What a picture of not assessing your situation. Wow! 

  

Jesus died on the cross for the forgiveness of all our sins, past, present, future. Yet, many are blinded to their need for His forgiveness because they have not assessed their situation. Pray for salvation for the lost, in our marriages, families, work places, peers, churches (yes, churches), ministries (yes, ministries) and the world. Pray that God will draw them to Himself through Jesus Christ and His love demonstrated toward us.

 

John 6:44 (ESV)

No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day.

His,
Vickie