A Certain Pile of Shoes

“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life…Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Who of you by worrying can add…[anything?]” Matthew 6:25-26.

Yesterday I decided to separate my shoes and take a few pairs to Goodwill. Mother had spent the night and was still sleeping while Bruce had already left for work. As I worked in my closet I became embarrassed at the number of shoes I own. I promptly piled a collection of shoes to take to Goodwill in the middle of the closet. A while later Mother needed to borrow a few things from my bathroom. Forgetting about the pile we walked upstairs only to discover the shoes…my earlier embarrassment morphed into shame. We rushed out of the house and once again the pile lay untouched. Upon my husband’s return from work he walked into the same pile. Once again, I was mortified that not only had I collected all of those but also had allowed them to remain piled up in my closet. (They are still there this morning!) I had allowed them to pile up untouched even when I knew I needed to take them away. This reminds me of our worries that pile up in our thoughts.

Matthew records the words of a man who could have worried and certainly had every right to worry regarding His own life. We forget that Jesus walked in human flesh with human emotions just as we live and breathe. He too had the option to store away in the barns of His mind fear, doubt, worry and anxiety. His example for us was to pray, pray and pray. He never allowed His mind to run ahead of His circumstances. He kept in step with His Father and was well aware that praying about the ‘what is’ instead of the ‘what if’ would bring Him transcending peace.

It is a wonderful reminder that what we store in our thought closet is what we will experience in our heart. The Old English word wyrgan is our version of the word worry. The definition for wyrgan is to strangle. When we worry, we invite fear to come into our thoughts and strangle the truths that God had placed in our hearts. We forget that just as Mother and Bruce saw into my closet, God stands in the middle of our thoughts and sees the piles. ‘Evening, morning and noon, I cry out…and he hears my voice.’ Psalm 55:17. ‘The LORD knows the thoughts of man;’ Psalm 94:11.

I would write more but I most go and take care of a certain pile of shoes.