"If the Shoe Fits, Wear It!"

My mom used to have a full stock of sayings appropriate to various occasions. "If the shoe fits, wear it!" was one that seems especially relevant to modern culture with a shift in meaning. Lots of folks today stick their feet into other people's shoes presuming to know everything about them. They judge people they only know as "friends" on Facebook. They jump to conclusions about things and make rash judgments about others in the comment section of every website. After all, they know everything about them because they slip on their shoes just long enough to tell the world all about them: their beliefs, their opinions, the state of their souls. Their knowledge about others (Trump supporters especially) would fill a multi-volume encyclopedia.

Meanwhile, their own shoes are gathering cobwebs in the closet. They are so busy examining the consciences of others, they rarely look at their own faults and failings, not to mention their own sins. 

Walking in other people's shoes is another saying that's supposed to mean having compassion for their difficulties and challenges and showing empathy. That often isn't the case though.

While I've altered the meaning of "If the shoe fits wear it." I believe my interpretation fits the modern situation. We live in a hyper-critical world of judgment and condemnation -- not of actions which is appropriate, but of the state of people's souls. Many people today are so busy judging the state of soul of others (which we are forbidden to do), that they don't have time to examine their own consciences or judge their own failings. It's so much more fun to judge others. 

I'm not talking about actions here. We are called to use the "seat of judgment" to recognize sinful actions and avoid them and also "to admonish the sinner" as a spiritual work of mercy. It is no sin to point out the evils occurring in our culture. Those who ignore sodomy, child abuse, abortion, etc. and shrug over them have a problem with anger -- not being too angry, but not being angry enough. Tolerance is often a sin if we are willing to tolerate intrinsic evils and even enable them by our silence and approval.

In the fairy tale of the Shoemaker and the elves, the helpful elves serve the kind, but poor, shoemaker. He is so grateful he makes the barefoot elves little shoes and is delighted to see them dancing off to find another soul in need. Let us ask the Lord to be our shoemaker, to make us hiking boots for the journey that we may earn the praise of Isaiah 52:7:

How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, and that preacheth peace: of him that sheweth forth good, that preacheth salvation, that saith to Sion: Thy God shall reign!

Let us pray that the shoes the Lord wants to put on our feet are the ones that fit! And then let us go forth on the journey in gratitude and faith serving Him.

May Jesus Christ be praised.