When I was younger and of the age in my church to be an acolyte my mother would always hound me ‘don’t wear your sneakers on the alter’! I was somewhat faithful to her demand of me but one day during the summer there was no one else to acolyte and I was wearing my sneakers. Oh man what do I do what do I do! Looking back on this moment it should have been clear to me that I should have not had this conundrum and just gone up and light the candles because it was an act of worship to God. But there was part of me that asked, can I defy my mother? Will God get mad at me if I break one of the Ten Commandments and disobey my parents? Well the long of the short of it was that I decided to do it just to defy my mothers ‘no sneakers on the alter’ rule. The roof did not cave in; there was no bolt of lightening that struck me down. It was all good.
Reflecting on this as someone who is now older and who is also interested in the human reactions to God, this got me to thinking how do we meet God. My mothers no sneakers on the alter came from her childhood religious upbringing where she and her family did not go to church often because they had to be dressed just so. Often there was not money for the gloves that needed to be worn in church. I am quite sure that there are people who only meet God on Sunday mornings in circumstances like this. But what about those who meet God in the dirt, or the fields, or in books, or in art or the creation of something, they are certainly not dress ‘just so’ in accordance to this standard.
I happen now to wear what I consider ‘low’ shoes as in not my dress shoes to church most of the time, even when I am leading or preaching. Why you ask dear readers, well for several reasons. Firstly I don’t really like my current dress shoes*, they are not comfortable and give off an attitude of ‘dress shoes, special shoes, and once in a while shoes’. Second I often am not sure where my dress shoes have landed in my shuffling of stuff between NY and NJ. Third they are not comfortable. I must have comfortable shoes because I have balance and walking issues so my shoes literally ground me and must help me keep my balance. Fourth why should I dress up to meet God, when I know that God loves me in my jeans and t-shirts.
Granted that when I lead I do like to dress with some authority giving the appearance that I know what I’m doing (because so many times I feel like I have NO clue). But I like to keep my shoes the way they are, the ones that guide me each day and are not relegated to live in there box until the best moment to where them arrives. Because what if that best moment passes by and they are not on my feet?
If you can’t tell by now I do happen to love shoes and have a very great relationship with mine. I can remember the shoes that I did many important things in, my college acceptance shoes-payless brown boots that really needed to be resoled, seminary acceptance-target black ballet flats, I also wore these for when I signed the book at Drew**. First time addressing my annual conference my beat up keen hiking sneakers. All moments that where and are important to me on my journey. I feel like we all have items like my shoes that we place high value on. So aside from defying my mother and her stilly rule, I make the conscious decision to continue to meet God in my normal shoes, all over the place and try not to leave my meetings to Sunday alone.
*I had a pair of dress shoes that I LOVED, maybe a little to much that I scratched the leather on and now are not presentable to wear as dress shoes. They where awesome, and I miss them.
**Signing the book is part of Drew Theo. tradition. All new students sign a book from when the school was first established, and except for a few years when the book was lost contains every student who has matriculated into the school. This tradition now also takes place in the college of liberal arts at Drew as well.
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