Giant shoes....

Nothing melts my heart more than than to see my 6 yr. old walk around trying to imitate her daddy. In her eyes he is this untouchable, strong, courageous, fearless superhero. She puts to much trust in Him and even in her 6 yr. old mind wants to be like him and try her best to fil his shoes. We have pictures of her when she was a toddler clunking around wearing her daddys shoes on her feet that looked enormous. She tried with all her might but seemed to never be able to get very far in those giant shoes without tripping and stumbling along the way. Regardless of how hard she tries or how much she grows I'm sure she will never be able to fill those shoes, but the amazing thing is that its ok. I was reminded of this yesterday cleaning up my front porch and seeing a pair of pink and black little addidas soccer cleats sitting next to a grown mans pair of Nikes.

I think so many times we look at God as being untoucable, sovereign, a King, Master, dictator, ruler, perfect. We feel like in order to go to church or have a relationship with God there is a list of expectations on ourselves, there is a sense that we need to have it all together and meet certain standards to deserve Gods love and grace. So many people believe you have to clean yourselves us first before you can go to church or have Jesus apart of your life. It can get overhwleming and discouraging and then we feel like we can never fill those giant shoes God has for us. Whether it be people or the church in general I'm not sure where this list of expectations come from, why do people feel so strongly that there is a prerequisite of being clean. It can be so confusing but isnt that the point of Gods grace and redemption, not to bring a clean story before Him, but to bring a messy one and allow God to transform our lives. The beauty of God's power is the journey beyond the craziness we bring to the table its the way God intervenes on our behalf, down to every detail, every little nook and cranny and renews our hearts and lives and begins to write a new story.

The truth is God is more than a King, master, sovereign ruler, He is our friend. He is personal, He is loving, He is faithful, He is a strong hand we can reach out and grab in the midst of our brokeness, our hurts, our failures, our mistakes. There is nothing in this world that is ever too big for God, we can never outsin or go beyond a place where Christ can't reach us. He wants to be present in the midst of our mess, He wants to take ahold of our aching hearts and shattered lives and help us to walk forward with confidence that we are not alone, we dont have to do it alone ever again. Thats our mission as Christians to share our hearts and stories with others. To show that we also can never fill Gods shoes but He has still given each of us His grace, redemption, mercy and love. Romans 3:23 "for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." Whithout Christ we are so ordinary but with Him we can do extraordinary things.