New Shoes

On Saturday I went to town to take advantage of some of the post-Thanksgiving deals. I knew what I was looking for, but I was not going to go out of my way to get anything. I stopped in a well known department store to see if they had shoes on sale that fit me. I hate shopping for shoes. Perhaps, that is one of the things that is built into men to differentiate them from women? Besides I was only passing through so that I could get to Menards (a home improvement store). I usually have a tough time finding shoes. Sometimes the stores are out of my size of a shoe that I really like and sometimes the stores have a lot of shoes of my size that I don't like. The whole change thing can be traumatizing, especially when it comes to new shoes because you are now comfortable with your old pair and they fit just right. However, I wear my shoes into the ground, just so I don't have to go and look for new shoes. My current pair has a Dr. Scholls insert because the soles were coming through the fabric and the bottoms are flat and weak, when it rains more water ends up on my socks then in the puddles.

Imagine my surprise when I found a pair of shoes just like the pair I was wearing! That never happens, that is why I hate buying new shoes. I never see a particular style of shoes twice. The only exception was when I was wearing little kids shoes, a really long time ago. Not only did they have the same shoes, but they had a pair in my size! No asking the sales person to go in back and look and then be disappointed upon their return.

On my 20 some mile journey back home I was thinking about the sermon from the previous Sunday. It was from Luke 21:5-19. In this passage Jesus talks about the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem and also signs about the end times. The Temple was the center of the Jewish religion, it is where God lived. Even so, the Temple was destroyed some year latter. The Jews had to come up with a new way to worship God since the Temple was no longer standing and that can be hard to do--to do something new. In the rest of the passage, Jesus talks about the signs of the coming Kingdom. Jesus talks about things that will take place, but not necessarily bring about the end. However, Jesus prepares his disciples to be ready, for persecution and hatred because of Christ. The passage ends with hope in that those who trust Christ will be saved not any part of them will perish, not even a hair on your head, v. 18. It is through the endurance that we will gain our souls, v. 19.

In the 4th century A.D. Constantine made Christianity the "official" religion of the Roman Empire. Up to this point, Christians were regularly persecuted for their faith. The Christians at this time were not sure how to react to this news, to peace. Up to the present Christians the world has been fairly peaceful towards Christians with the exception of persecutions breaking out every once in a while. This leads to a question: I wonder how we as Christians would react if all of a sudden the tables were turned again and persecution became the norm for Christians? We who live in the U.S. are very fortunate that we live in a country where we are allowed to freely worship as we please. I don't think many of us think twice about our right to worship freely, we take it for granted.

Someday, though, we may have to realize that a new norm has come--that persecution is inevitable, but there is comfort in the fact that we may have to endure suffering here, but compared to eternity it is just a drop of water in the ocean and a grain of sand on the seashore. The point is to trust Christ, with faith, and that ultimately the Christian wins their life--eternal life.