I Walked into Church Wearing Cowgirl Boots and Left Wearing Socks
by Sandy Arena on 04/04/14
One thing I love about loving Jesus, is you just never know what to expect. The Bible says to lean not on your own understanding, and in doing so I have found life with the Lord leads to many unexpected twists, turns and delightful surprises - like going to church wearing your favorite cowgirl boots and then heading home wearing your socks!
This was exactly what happened a while back when we visited a church. Herein lies a three-part story of us going to this particular church - called Epic Church - and then heading home with less than that with which we arrived, only then to be blessed beyond measure by the Lord who tremendously increased back to us a return for our obedience, bizarre as some of it has been. It has indeed been an epic adventure, and one worth writing about.
We always tell our kids that when you give, Jesus gives you more. This is true because my Bible tells me so. "One man gives freely, yet gains even more; another withholds unduly, but comes to poverty." Proverbs 11:24 or "Each man should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver." 2 Corinthians 9:7
I choose to share this three-part series not to puff myself up as one who "gives" and to personally pat myself on my back, but because I want to share how faithful God is when it comes to this matter, and to say He does cheerfully and willingly give back. To Him alone be the glory.
It all started with the cowgirl boots. Or should I call them cowboy boots? Either way, they were special to me. We had traveled to Nashville for a Christian arts conference with our production The Life Ballet. We were there over Mother's Day and my husband wanted to buy me boots in honor of our trip to Nashville where there is truly a boot store on every corner, and in honor of Mother's Day. After trying on about 100 pairs, I settled on a pair that had a tad bit of bling, but not obnoxiously so, and that were neutral in color - a faded black and pewter motif, if I recall. They were perfect.
So here I was sitting in a church wearing my boots, listening to a gifted and engaging speaker share a teaching on giving and the importance of tithing. During her talk, she said, "It's not like God is telling you to give the shoes off your feet or anything." She was making the point about tithing and to give to God first and then the rest will fall in place. "Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,” says the Lord Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it." Malachi 3:10
She was also saying in this "shoes off your feet" comment, that He wouldn't leave you bare, hungry, hurting and without shoes, you know, if you needed them.
When she got to the thing about the shoes, the congregation chuckled. "Oh right, God would never do that to us," we laughed. And at that moment, I heard that still small voice you hear when you come into relationship with the Lord that said, "Don't laugh. Give her your shoes."
"Um no Lord, you wouldn't dare ask me that," I said back. "These are my cowgirl boots straight from Nashville where all those promises of Yours came into fruition, and these boots are just evidence of that!!! I love these boots!"
I continued my conversation (and you do know that the Bible says the sheep will hear His voice, so this is how it goes for me). "God, you are going to have to confirm this with me because sometimes I just get overzealous about these matters. So the boots stay on my feet until You confirm otherwise. Please. Just saying. Not to be disrespectful or anything. But just confirm. No big deal."
So I go into the bathroom after the service and I'm still telling God He needs to check back in with me about this shoe matter because I'm leaving the church in like two minutes with my boots ON, and I don't want to do this if He wants me to give them to her! So there I am in the restroom, and all the sudden a text comes in from my friend MaryAnn. She is a vessel of God's voice for me and has been for years. So I look at my phone and what do you know, the text says something about a cowboy! The girl is texting me about a cowboy. We never text cowboy. We live in upstate NY and we don't do cowboys up here. So there it was - the "VOICE" - talking/texting me about cowboys. Go figure. I took that as confirmation.
"Okay fine," I say to God. I check in with my husband to prepare him of this whole thing (he is used to this kind of stuff), and then I head back into the sanctuary where there is a line of people waiting to visit with our speaker.
So I get in line. When finally it's my turn, I don't really know how to explain all of this, so I start rambling, "You know that part in your message where you mentioned that God would never tell us to give the shoes off our feet? Well, He told me to give you my shoes. So yeah. Here." She is looking at me, and I awkwardly bend down and start yanking and pulling and hobbling and hopping until the boots come off, and I hand them to her. "I'm sorry," I add, not sure where to go from there. "It's so bizarre."
Then the God joy moment comes. Oh my gosh, I find out, she wears a size 10 just like me! And she's from Fort Worth, Texas, the land of all things cowboy. And how ironic, I was just getting ready to go to Fort Worth, Texas with my two daughters in a few weeks from this cowgirl boot incident to perform our Life Ballet show. So we laughed, we hugged, we gushed over God's amazingness, we took a few pictures and off I went out the church door......in my socks!!!!
It was a very faith-building experience for me that the Lord indeed does speak to us, He cares and He has our life journey in the palm of His hands.
That was Part I of my three-fold giving journey at Epic Church.
And I have to say YOU must try this and test the Lord on this. There is so much joy and fun in giving, AND He will blow your socks - I mean cowboy boots - off!!!!
