“Sand in our Shoes”

Galatians 5:22-6:3

Pastor Melanie Hammond Clark

Stephen Ministry Sunday, June 6, 2010

In our scripture passage after sharing the Fruits of the Spirit, it says, “If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit… Let us have no self-conceit, no provoking of one another, no envy of one another.  When another sins, we are called to restore that person with a spirit of gentleness, to look to ourselves lest we too are tempted.”  We are called to “bear one another’s burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ.”  And finally, Paul writes, “Let us not grow weary in well-doing, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart.”

“Let us walk by the Spirit… for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart.”

It sounds straightforward enough but in the ins and outs of our lives it is not always so easy to walk our faith without losing heart.  We do sometimes grow weary in our well-doing.  And there are days when we wonder how we can possibly bear another’s burdens when we are already stumbling under the weight of our own.

What makes the Christian walk of ours so tough?  What is it along the way that gives us so much trouble?  Well there are many answers to that question, but today I want to talk about one of them. 

There’s a story I heard years ago about a mountain climber, an adventurer, who had just returned from a climbing expedition and was being interviewed by reporters.  One reporter asked, “What was the most difficult part of the climb?  Was it the rough weather, the high altitudes, the grueling pace?”  “No,” replied the mountaineer, “Quite frankly, the most frustrating part of the climb was the sand that kept getting in my shoes.”

Sand in our shoes.

For many of us that’s what holds us back in our walk with Christ:  the rough weather, the high altitudes, the grueling pace, those are often things for which we can prepare.  They are clear obstacles which we can train ourselves to overcome, but the sand in our shoes is a nagging problem that stays with us, which weighs us down, and it weighs down our every move.  It’s the nitty-gritty little stuff that irritates us.

The rock in our shoe we can more easily identify and so then more easily remove, but the sand in our shoes is harder to clear out.  It sticks to our feet, and if left there for a while can make quite a mess.

Now, I am not much of a mountain climber, but my experience with sand in my shoes has usually been at a beach.  When I was growing up in Indiana, for years our family’s summer vacation would be to first visit my maternal grandparents in Detroit, Michigan, and then to head up further north to spend time at a resort on Lake Michigan called Sleepy Hollow.  Often the weather would be cool and rainy and our walks along the beach involved sweatshirts, jeans and tennis shoes.  And even if we walked barefoot, sand got in our shoes because our sandy feet had to go back into our shoes before we walked back up the somewhat briar infested hill to the resort.

Now, I was always irritated by that sand, but I wanted to take the walks with everyone along the shore, to chase the tides, to find rocks, to hear the water’s peaceful rush.  Still, the gritty sand in my shoes always seemed to make the trip a little less than perfect, and, at the age of 5 or 6, I was not real patient with it.

Well, if we’re not on the beach or climbing mountains, what is the sand in our shoes that makes our walk more wearying?  For each of us, the sand that weighs down our shoes may be different.  For some it is jealousy, for others it’s anxiety or old anger.  Sometimes it may be the careless remarks someone made either today or twenty years ago.  At other times it may be an opportunity gone, a mistake made, a love lost, a chronic illness of our own or someone else’s.

But whatever it is, the sand in our shoes is something that impedes our walk, that slows us down, that takes away from the beauty that is all around us.

Now, perhaps you are one of those people who would respond, “Melanie, what is the big deal about sand in our shoes?  It never bothers me!  I just keep going.”  And for many that is the reality.  The soles of their feet are tough and nothing seems to get to them.  But guess what?  The sand is still there, even if it is ignored, and it adds weight to the walk and wear and tear on the inside.

In his article, “The Race of His Life,” Robert Stackell writes that a marathon runner cannot afford to carry one ounce of extra physical weight.  One ounce will weigh like a pound after 26 miles.  God desires for us to walk and run countless miles as on air, and that is hard to do if we do not rid the sand from our shoes.

Everyone seems to handle their sand differently.  As I said, some people just ignore it, and I guess that’s okay if they really don’t have much sand in their lives, as long as they’re not just really ignoring a growing mess.  Other people may keep walking the journey, never shaking the sand from their shoes, but complaining all the while.  They don’t complain to unload it and move on, but rather to let the world know they are walking but in agony.  Not only does this ruin everyone else’s walk, but it also continually increases the weight of that person’s walk, keeping them from unloading it helpfully and recognizing and celebrating a lighter side of life.  And then there are those who, failing to recognize that a little bit of sand on our feet is a fact of life, decide not to walk at all.  They stay stuck where they are with everyone who cares for them trying to convince them to come along and the more you give and struggle and encourage them, the more entrenched they become, as if they fear getting well might mean you would go away.

Still there are others who find it hard to move, not simply because of the sand, but because of some other weight that clings closely, or because of a weariness that will not leave them.  I wonder how many parents realize what they often misdiagnose as laziness in their kids is really immobility caused by stress and tension they have learned from adults to hide, and have not learned to deal with constructively.

There are legitimate times in our lives when movement is hard, and we find it hard for now to go on.  When I was little, I knew when I needed my mother’s hug, or when I wanted my dad to lift me up in his arms.  In a child’s innocence or lack of pride, a child knows when he or she needs to be carried for a time.  We adults are a little less adept at having those needs met.

But it is the mature person who remembers that he or she is still a child, a child of God, and in that maturity, filled with child-like receptivity for what God has to offer, we are called to recognize that by God’s Spirit and by the ways God works through others, there are ways to shake the sand from our shoes so we can go on.  Christ calls us, not just into a relationship with him, but to share the life of that relationship with others.  Christ calls us into prayer – yes, but also into community.  We are not meant to walk this journey alone, but to take turns bearing one another’s burdens.  Our burdens may not always go away, but their weight is lighter because it is shared and we find the strength to go on.  If we just keep on walking without stopping now and then to remove our shoes and clear out the sand and tend that place, then pretty soon we are too weary to go on.  Harry Emerson Fosdick once wrote, “One who cannot let go, cannot hang on.”

People often ask me, and I’m sure they ask other pastors, “How can you take on so many people’s burdens without getting all weighed down?”

I tell them truthfully, that the way of bearing another’s burden is to make room in my arms by unloading my own to someone else, by sharing mine with another, so my arms are empty and available and ready to carry another’s weight.  I unload my own to God – yes, but also, to and with people God has brought into my life.  If we don’t clear the sand from our shoes now and then, the guck just builds up, and tiny grains that could have been cleared away clog up our shoes, and sometimes we don’t even remember where it all came from. 

“If we live by the Spirit, let also walk by the Spirit… Bear one another’s burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ… and let us not grow weary in well-doing, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart.”  Let us remember as we walk along the way to stop now and then to shake the sand from our shoes, to perhaps invite another to help us, and then make the journey that is before us with a heart that is full, but a step that is light.

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.