Ecclesiastes 3:14-15 (MSG)
14 I've also concluded that whatever God does, that's the way it's going to be, always. No addition, no subtraction. God's done it and that's it. That's so we'll quit asking questions and simply worship in holy fear.
15 Whatever was, is. Whatever will be, is. That's how it always is with God.
I was sharing these verses with a friend the other day and realized how impactful they were. It’s not our time, but it’s God’s time. This story is an illustration of how we shouldn’t think more highly of ourselves than we ought to because of our status or worldly possessions.
Back in the day, we all played flag football every Thursday. Rick and I were best friends in high school and still are to this day. He had one seat at the very back of the school bus and I had the other. We orchestrated things on the bus from this vantage point. We were not bullies but knew the status and responsibility we had as being the older boys in the home. If we saw something that was out of line, we were quick to act and bring correction. Looking back, I wonder what the other boys must have thought about how we behaved on those Thursdays.
On Thursdays, Rick and I didn’t talk; we just rode home from school on the bus. We played flag football on separate teams. He played on the “farm” team, and I played on the home team. The farm team always recruited the tougher and stronger guys. They were called the farm team because they worked on the farm. By the way, farm work paid seven dollars a week and was one of the highest paying jobs around. The farm team was the best, but I wasn’t on it. Don’t get me wrong, I was as good as any of those guys, but the farm thing just wasn’t me.
When we rode home on Thursdays, the bus was always quiet. This was the day that Rick and I would taunt each other and tell each other exactly what was going to happen on the field that day. You get the point. We were very specific in our language and our action. The other boys would just listen in. If you are wondering who was driving our school bus, it was another boy from the home. We had our own bus, and it was just us.
Then, one day, Rick crosses the line. We are going back and forth; it is a very heated conversation that day and we are almost in a fight, screaming back and forth. Suddenly, Rick stands up and picks up his bookbag. The bus driver slams on breaks. As the bus is coming to a stop, I stand up, gripping the back of the seat in front of me. Rick reaches into his bookbag and pulls out a pair of freshly painted football cleats. He screams, “Yeah baby. What’s up? What are you going to do with these bad boys?” He had painted his football cleats gold. Then he declares at the top of his lungs, “Today, these babies are going to fly by you so fast; you ain’t going to see nothing but gold.” Then he starts this taunt of “FTD, FTD baby, FTD, FTD baby.” When we were growing up, there was a flower guy on a TV commercial that wore golden shoes, and he ran really fast from delivery to delivery. Rick decides that if he wears golden shoes, he will be as fast as the FTD guy.
The whole bus bursts out laughing, the driver starts the bus, and we continue home. Rick straps on his golden shoes, still taunting me. He is dead serious about these shoes. What can I say? The man has golden shoes on. I was so ready to get to the field that day. The game starts, and it doesn’t take long for me and Rick to get matched up. He catches a pass and runs down the sideline; he looks at me and points down at his shoes. I head straight for him. When I get within range, I dive and hit him right in the side and send him sailing about twenty feet out of bounds. This is supposed to be flag football, so while we are on the ground, I grab his flag and say, “Got ya, golden boy.” We both get up and realize how stupid we have been and laugh out loud. To this day, we still crack up about the golden shoes.
So, what’s the point of this story? Sometimes our possessions make us think we are something we are not. Things don’t really make us who we are. They paint a picture to others, but when it’s all said and done and the lights go out, who are you?
As the word in Ecclesiastes says, “Whatever was, is. Whatever will be, is.” Put in my vernacular, “It is what it is.” If we would try harder at living a life of truth and not one of golden shoes, we could help each other more. Maybe we could team up and do something for this world, leaving our golden shoes in the closet. Be who God made you to be. Find your destiny and your position in life in Jesus Christ. This life is not about how much stuff we can accumulate and how we model the clothes on our backs and the cars in our driveways. Life is about purpose and destiny. Who are you? Where are you going and how are you going to get there? Are you going to be you or someone with golden shoes? Are you going to be authentic or be a painted-on person?
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