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I saw a man tonight wearing two different shoes, a tennis shoe and a hiking shoe. I don’t know why and yet, I was too afraid to ask. Maybe he couldn’t find a matching pair. Maybe he needed to wear a bigger shoe on one foot. Maybe he got dressed in the dark and didn’t know he had put on two different shoes. The reason doesn’t really matter, but he did make me think about the shoes I wear and why I wear a matching pair.

It looks really silly wearing two different shoes. I’ve been known to wear two different shoes into the living room to ask Justin which shoe looks best with an outfit. I limp my way from the bedroom to the living room, stand in front of him, do the flamingo, and ask which looks better the boot or the heels. It’s hard walking with two different heel heights and I would never make it across the parking lot without stumbling and falling.

But sometimes we all try to wear two different shoes, one that match God’s will and one that caters to my desires. It’s still silly looking, but wearing these two different shoes will get you more than just stares and wonderment from those around you. Your life is going to be like the fountain that James talks about in James 3:8-11 –“But the tongue can no man tame; it is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison.Therewith bless we God, even the Father; and therewith curse we men, which are made after the similitude of God. Out of the same mouth proceedeth blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not so to be. Doth a fountain send forth at the same place sweet water and bitter?”

You are still going to have a hard time walking; you may stumble and even fall. But when you do get back up, you are going to have to choose which shoe we are going to wear and who we are going to serve. You can’t walk around successfully in two different shoes for very long. Just as Jesus said in Matthew 6:24 – “No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.”  We are going to have to pick a matching pair. Which shoe are you going to choose, one that can bring you “life and peace” or one that can bring you “death” (Romans 8:6)?

By Kristina Odom
Kristina and her husband, Justin, serve with the church of Christ in Fairfield, IL where her husband is the preacher. Kristina is a stay-at-home mother to their three kids.