Got boots?

There’s a pair of cowboy boots sitting next to my bed. 

I’ve always had a thing for shoes, but this time I don’t know what I was thinking.

I’m not a cowboy. I don’t ride horses. I don’t live on a farm. I’m not even really southern.

We relocated to Virginia from New Jersey. Cowboy boots are not the kind of thing you would normally associate with a typical Jersey Girl.

But there they are….right next to my bed…..staring at me….daring me to wear them.

It is going to take all of the moxy I can muster to actually go out in public with them on my feet . Since I’m pretty sure that it is a huge fashion no-no for someone my age to go around sporting cowboy boots.

You should have seen the look my 15 year old daughter gave me when I showed them to her.

You know what though?

I don’t care. They are cute and fun, frivolous, impractical and they make me feel brave.

And maybe it’s my age, or call it a mid-life crisis if you must, but  lately, I want to be brave.  

I want to be who God made me to be. Not who the world thinks or says I should be.  The same power that raised Jesus from the dead lives in me and I want more than anything to live knowing that truth. I have been given all of the strength, power, courage, knowledge and even moxy that I will ever need to do whatever it is God wants me to do.

It doesn’t matter whether I’m doing what the world thinks I should be doing. Quite frankly with regards to my writing if I did everything that all of the so called “experts” say I should be doing I wouldn’t have anytime to actually write!

I started this blog as a way of seeing God in the ordinary. My goal was to help people to see God at work in their lives no matter what they were doing or how insignificant they feel. In order to do that, I’ve got to be living with God in mind, not the world.  I’ve got to be focused on being who He made me to be. I have to be brave enough to do that which I’m afraid to do. Even if that means that it becomes just a back and forth between me and Him, without any thought to whether anyone else is out there reading.
So what does any of this have to do with wearing my new cowboy boots?

In the movie “Forest Gump” there is a line that sums it up.  It goes like this.  “You can tell a lot about someone by their shoes…..where they’re going…..where they’ve been……”

For me, daring to put on a pair of cowboy boots,I am able to go from “where I’ve been” …… holding back, afraid, feeling inadequate...... to “where I’m going”…….forward……stepping out courageously and boldly, without worrying about  the rules or my ability.

And maybe, just maybe I won't look too silly.

Josey