WHERE I STAND: AN INTRODUCTION

Last summer, I started taking pictures of my shoes.

I traveled quite a bit, and often would find myself looking down and intentionally noticing where I was standing. Then I would click the button on my camera to look back on later as a reminder of where the Lord has taken me. I consider it a sort of ebenezer stone (that is a reminder that thus far the Lord has helped me). I have stepped into so many places, times and circumstances. The Lord has been so faithful through it all.

My shoes have been through quite a bit over the years. They have stood through some intense hailstorms, hiked through jungles in Kauai, danced by a warm campfire. They have walked through the streets where Jesus walked in Jerusalem, scrambled out of a wrecked car on a highway in Missouri, stepped onto a college campus that seemed so far from home in Arkansas. They have nearly fallen through an icy pond, stood still under a sky full of stars in Colorado, ran into the arms of my best friend anytime she enters a room.

Unless they are brand new, most of them have some stains, if not full of paint splatters, and most of them have some tears, if the sole is not about to come off. I’m pretty sure my favorite pair of shoes deteriorated a bit, because I forgot to wash all of the salt off of them after going to the Dead Sea. They are messy, but they show evidence of what I have walked through, and the graciousness of the God who has walked with me.

My shoes have a lot of stories to tell; they have walked through many times, places, and circumstances and I can see that the Lord’s faithfulness is so incredibly evident in all of this. Now they sit in the closet of a room in a house on a little college campus where I write all of this to you from. They have stepped into many places, and they are a little reminder that there are so many adventures ahead. They are one of my reminders that thus far the Lord has helped me; thus far the Lord has been faithful, and He will continue to be faithful.