Emphasis Preaching Journal

Do you dislike buying shoes? How about dress shoes that are stiff, expensive and high maintenance? How many of us dream of going through life in soft, white, 100 percent cotton sweatsocks ... or maybe flipflops ... or slippers? Life demands that we buy and wear shoes, sometimes shoes that don't fit as comfortably as we'd like. Some of us have arches high as the London Bridge. Others have radically different sizes between our two appendices. We often curse the coverings that must be stood in, walked in, worked in. We moan and groan to get back into soft, white, 100 percent cotton sweatsocks, flipflops, or slippers. Doubt is like a pair of ill-fitting shoes. It cramps our spiritual toes, weakens our high arches of faith, and aggravates our moral sciatica. Doubt drives us to get relief, to move into something more comfortable. Maybe then doubt isn't all bad? Can doubt become a driving force to believe with more rigor and vigor toward the right-
fitting faith? Might it make our souls better, not bitter? Sometimes ill-fitting shoes need to be worn awhile, broken in, contoured to the uniqueness of our feet. Often they don't need cursing so much as constant formation. Thomas needed faith to fit a certain way ... his way ... the comfortable, "unless I see," 100 percent cotton way. Yet, New Testament faith requires that we put on the uncomfortable and continue walking! Once top-grade is broken in, it contours and protects much longer than soft, white, 100 percent cotton ever could. -- Webster