Pastor’s Corner: It Shouldn’t Have Worked

November 6, 2019

Sometimes the things you think will work… don’t.

Sometimes the things you think won’t work… do.

The world is a confusing place.

Life confirmed this simple truth once more for me as I selected my shoes for the YWCA’s Walk a Mile in Her Shoes event last month. In years past, I have looked for something with an ankle strap to hold my heel to the sole of the shoe. They have never ever worked. Every time, I’ve been unable to tighten them enough, and my heels have simply lifted out of the strap with every step.

This year, one of the YWCA volunteers steered me toward something else: a thong style shoe. I was skeptical. They had nothing to hold my heels in place, nothing at all. But the volunteer seemed optimistic, and for some reason there weren’t many options in my size, so I followed her advice, took off my socks, squirmed my toes beneath the straps, and set to walking.

The heels stayed right with me, uphill and downhill, across the Bayfront, and back to the Y. It was the easiest walking I’ve ever done in high heeled shoes.

I wonder how many other things I’ve failed to do in my life because I tried the things that looked like they’d work and didn’t try the things that looked like they wouldn’t work. I wonder how often the Church has clung to the obvious (and the obviously unsuccessful) rather than experiment with something different. I wonder how long we’ve contented ourselves with the inadequate when the glorious was one unlikely attempt away.

The world is a confusing place.

I’ve got to try some more things that I don’t think will work.

How about you?

With aloha,

Pastor Eric