My feet hurt. And it’s no small wonder. I’ve been trying to increase my walking and I am up to about 4 miles a day at least 4 – 5 days a week.  So, yesterday my feet hurt to where I couldn’t think about anything else.  In the early afternoon I made an amazing discovering, though.  Just by changing my shoes I gained a blessed amount of relief.  The simple act of changing shoes completely changed my outlook for the rest of the day.

In my prayer this morning I couldn’t help but think of what other things I might need to change, small though they may be, in order to follow Jesus through his passion and death to his resurrection.  Changing my shoes is a simple act, but changing my mind; changing my opinion; changing my attitude; changing my perspective can be, oh, so much more difficult.  Yet, if we are attentive and keyed into our interior selves, we might be able to pick up the clues when our opinions and attitudes begin to pinch and cause us discomfort.  Maybe it’s time to re-examine them and see if another style fits better with more comfort.

Holding fast to something that no longer serves us well – like an old pair of shoes – benefits no one.  Jesus wasn’t trying to tell the people to remain the same – he was preaching about something new, something very different, something that would bring change – life in the Kingdom of God.  And he was arrested and killed by the authorities because they did not want to embrace such a change.  Can we?