When I walk, I pray, and I walk a LOT.  When blessed to do it outdoors, I often notice as time progresses, I end up with grit of some sort in my shoes and socks.  Typically, it’s a minor irritant, ignored or relieved quickly as I make a quick “finger pass” along the cuff of my socks.  This often works, and the irritant is cleared or minimized enough to ignore.  But then other times, my “minor fix” as I’d initially acknowledge the issue of the gravel’s presence, forces dirt further into my sock or shoe.  My irritation increases, and I regularly have to decide if it’s gotten distracting enough to re-address with more intentionality.  Don’t get me wrong, the dirt isn’t necessarily bad, it just is.  And the dirt’s presence has literally no bearing on if the shoes and socks are still good, or if they can be used effectively.

It’s the same with us.  As we walk through life, there’s going to be dirt, good, bad, indifferent.  And it doesn’t mean we can’t still be used.  However, our perception of the irritant, the dirt, makes all the difference in how we experience life, and how He uses us.  We just need cleaning…sometimes a little…and sometimes a lot.  While I believe God will use for good anything we offer up to Him to use as sacrifice or to bless Him, sometimes we have too much dirt, too much distraction.  The blindness can impact how much we HEAR from Him, potentially impacting our effectiveness as we patiently (haha) allow Him to provide healing.

My point: We’ve all got dirt in our sneakers, and will this side of Heaven.  That’s what Grace is for, so go ahead and give yourself some, He is.  Offer yourself up and you WILL be used.  And if you’ve got a little dirt….no worries.  Like literally don’t worry.  He sees it.  He knows how it’s ALREADY been addressed in His Kingdom.  We’ve already won.  Simply, humbly, ask him if you can use His washer, throw yourself in, and trust that even if it feels like you’re banging around a hot dryer…you’re going to be AMAZING, bright, clean, good as new, when He’s done with you.

We’ve been blessed with socks and shoes…Maybe we’d better start walkin’. 😉