Rock in My Shoe (Guest Post: Niki Zimmerman)

   I really love to have guest posts on here as often as I can. This one is a real treat! Niki Zimmerman is a fantastically talented individual. She is a crazy good photographer (She actually owns "Go Ahead Images") and is a pretty sweet graphic designer! She is funny, a hipster, fashionable, friendly, dope, gangster, creative, kind, honest, and an incredible writer. She told me about her observations the other day and I begged her to share them with you. Here she is:

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   If you know anyone who talked to me for an extended period last night, you can ask them and they’ll know- I had a very painful rock in my shoe. It was right under the base of my 5^th metatarsal (yes, I did just Google that to make sure I said the right bone), and every time I took a step, it both annoyed me and hurt.

   Now, I wasn’t trying to complain about it. I’m just the type of person that can’t focus on anything else when something painful is happening in my life—or in my shoe. So it kept coming up in conversation. Finally, one dear friend ever-so-politely suggested that I should just take the shoe off and get the stupid thing out. Instead of heeding her advice, I decided… not to. And the excuses flowed aplenty:

This is actually Niki Zimmerman!

   “I can’t just take my shoe off! We’re in a restaurant—this isn’t Arkansas.”

   “But they’re high tops, laced all the way up. That would take an excessive amount of time.”

   “No, no, I need to be taking pictures right now. Maybe later.”

   Eventually, though, the excuse river dried up and I couldn’t think of a good reason not to just deal with the discomfort. This stupid rock was killing me! But still… what if my feet smelled? Or what if people looked at me strangely? I distracted myself by taking pictures and making conversation, but the annoying twinge of pain stayed with me. Finally, I just stopped walking around and sat down.

   When I got home, the first thing I did was toss my bag on the floor and immediately begin unlacing my shoe, prepared to revel in the glory of being rock free! I pulled the shoe off and turned it over into my hand, smirking victoriously… only, it wasn’t a rock that fell into my palm. It was a pearl.

   It wasn’t an expensive, rare pearl; it was simply a craft bead that had somehow fallen into my shoe. But still—it was nicer than any rock I could imagine. Who knows what put it there? It certainly wasn’t useful to me while inside my shoe, but once it was out, I was able to put it away and I’ll be able to take it out and use it when it becomes necessary.

   I think that we do this often in our lives. If you’re like me, when something painful befalls you, it’s difficult to train your thoughts on anything besides that. Yet at the same time, there are plenty of excuses not to just take out the painful thing and deal with it: pride, fear, shame.

   We try to distract ourselves instead. We plug into 15,000 ministries, host movie nights, numb our minds with pointless websites, or pour everything into a relationship. But at the end of the evening, the rock still hurts and we still have to take off our shoes and remove it. And usually, it is just a rock. One that has been cutting into us for too long and one that will just be thrown away, but we’ll feel better when it’s gone.

   Sometimes, though, it’s not quite so awful— it’s a pearl that has wound up in a shoe. And while it’s entirely unenjoyable when it’s not being dealt with, we can take it out, realize its value, and put it away. Then someday, when it’s needed, we can take it back out and use this once painful thing to make something else more beautiful.

   I can’t help but remember the verse in Genesis where Joseph is talking to his brothers. “You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good, to accomplish what is now being done: the saving of many lives,” he told them. I can’t say for sure if my shoe pearl personally intended to harm me, but it will be used for good later. Sometimes our life circumstances are harmful or hurtful, but God can use those things for good- to heal and restore!

   So do yourself a favor—quit complaining about the rock in your shoe, stop making excuses, don’t distract yourself. Sit down and deal with the things that seem negative, and just see what He does in your life.