I love the
confidence I feel in a brand new pair of stylish shoes. I like even more my
feet to be comfortably encased in my pretty new shoes.
I’m noticing
that change is a lot like a new pair of shoes. Attractive and uncomfortable
until the feet and the shoes yield to the other to support a comfortable
journey for the shoe-wearer.
In a
spiritual direction session I was bemoaning the changes in my life; the laying
down of familiar rhythms of job and service. I left my nursing job of seventeen
years and yielded to another teacher the Sunday School class I taught for
twenty years. I am experiencing changes in relationships as our children are
successfully launched and our parents retired. I’m noticing changes in what I
am drawn to, as previously fulfilling activities are not appealing to me yet
new opportunities are not very productive.
When my
director prayed with me, she invited God to steady my trust in Him as He pruned
away the old fruit to allow for the growth of new. These few words lit a candle in my soul. The discomfort with the way I was wearing
change shifted to an understanding of a pruning process. This new knowing is infusing this season with
hope as I wait and grow.
My season of pruning is uncomfortable, yet I
am attracted to new fruitfulness.
Tentative tendrils of growth are unfurling towards what I’m not sure. It
is enough to know that the vine of my life is in the Master Gardener’s hands and
He is nurturing my fruitfulness.
According to Jesus, this will be for God’s glory and to show that I am
His follower.
Changing
shoes for the next leg of my journey is exciting and scary. Some days I long
for a comfortable fit, but mostly I embrace the invitation to surrender to
God’s pruning shears and remain in Him.
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