Shoe dreams…
Shoes. Everyone has them, everyone wears them. Well, most everyone. When my kids were little they were constantly taking their shoes off everywhere we went. I loved seeing their little bare feet.
I have always had an affinity for shoes.
I have many shoes for various occasions in my closet. I even put tiny little pink fluffy slippers on my daughter’s itty bitty feet the very day she was born.
So I guess it’s not that strange that I should dream about shoes, right?
Although I’m not one to remember my dreams, and they are certainly not usually vivid. But when they are, I tend to think God is communicating something to me. It’s usually at critical times in my life…times when I may feel like I can’t hear Him as clearly as I normally do.
So when I awake with a vivid dream clear in my mind I write it down. Then I pray about it and ask God to help me understand it.
Like I said, I don’t normally have vivid dreams…
I don’t normally remember my dreams at all. But this year was different. Well, this year was different in so many ways…for all of us. But I had four very vivid dreams between January and May. They were full of symbolism. Two of them were about shoes. And not just any old shoes….running shoes.
I was a runner for years.
I loved it, but back problems have since stopped me from participating. I guess I could be reminiscing about my former favorite pastime. Or do the dreams mean something more?
In both dreams things were happening that were unsettling, they brought major life change. And I was looking for and trying to put on my running shoes. Shoes can often represent protection in our dreams. And I think it’s very likely that they were representing that for me in these dreams. I felt uncovered and vulnerable, and even insecure. I was being reminded that I needed to stay close to God who is my covering and my protector. The Bible says…
He will cover you with his feathers; you will take refuge shelter under his wings.
Psalm 91:4
It also says…
but the Lord is faithful and he will strengthen you and protect you from the evil one.
2 Thessalonians
I know full well that He is my protection and that when life feels uncertain and unstable I need to stay close to Him.
I also find it interesting that the shoes in both dreams were running shoes. And so I started to look at what the Bible says about running.
Here’s what I found…
Let us run with perseverance the race marked out before us
Hebrews 12:1
I have fought the good fight I have finished the race I have kept the faith
2 Timothy 4:7
They will run and not grow weary.
Isaiah 40:31
Weary.
I have a feeling a lot of us feel weary right now.
The world has been a strange place lately – so much division and strife, so much sickness and death. It’s been difficult to process exactly what is happening, and how we as Christians move forward in all of it. I know for myself I have felt immobilized in the middle of it. The ministry that I believe God directed me to start has just been stalled, and basically inactive.
I think that God is reminding me
…reminding all of us…that we need to stay close to him.
Where we find shelter.
Where we find protection.
Where we find strength.
But also, we need to continue to run our race, to not allow what is happening around us to stop us from walking out the great commission in our own lives. He has called us to go into all the world and preach the gospel.
He has called us to win the lost.
And so, whatever happens in life, we have to keep our running shoes close by. There are times when we’ll take them off and take a break, but they have to be put back on so that we can continue to run our race.
So that when we get to the end of our life we can say, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished my race, I have kept the faith. And there we will hear, “well done good and faithful servant”.