I thought they were ready.  I really did.  They weren’t!

New shoes . . . I hate them.  Oh, I love buying them . . . I love looking for just the right pair . . . but wearing them? 

Give me my old shoes that are worn through the bottom.  They are comfortable.  They are flexible.  They are . . . not going to cause blisters!

You would think I would learn.  Ok, maybe you know me and you don’t think that ;-).  A couple of years ago I flew down to a conference in the Smoky Mountains and bought a new pair of hiking boots.  I then proceeded to wear them on a 5 mile hike to a beautiful waterfall.  I swore then that I had learned my lesson . . . never do a 5 mile hike in a new pair of shoes.  Well . . . you guessed it . . . I did it again.  We did our 5 mile family walk tonight and I wore a pair of shoes that I had only worn a couple of times before. 

Can you say blisters?  Oh, it gets better.  Midway through the walk, the back of my heels were hurting so bad that I decided I had to take my shoes off.  See . . . I learned.  Don’t do a 5 mile walk in new shoes, take them off half way through and finish the walk in stocking feet.  Smart move.  Now I have blisters on the backs of my heels AND on the bottom of my feet.

Isn’t that a lot like life?  We either avoid new things because we are sure they will be painful or we rush into new things before the time is right and then we face the blisters.  And how often does the pain of the blisters of life cause us to make some smart move that simply spreads and increases the pain? 

The shoes aren’t bad.  As a matter of fact, I really like these shoes.  I should have put more time and preparation into breaking in these shoes before wearing them on such a long walk.  The timing was wrong.  We weren’t ready for each other.  I am confident that there will come a day when these shoes and I will share a lot of miles together.  The pain will subside.  The blisters will heal.  The shoes will become more comfortable . . . more flexible.  We’ll get used to each other.  The newness will fade.  The bottoms will wear out.  And I’ll wonder how I’m ever going to find and break in another pair of shoes that could ever be as comfortable as what these will become.