Thinking of Nancy

This past week the Living the Questions group at our church finished a study on the Bible and homosexuality. It had been 20 years since we last did a study on this issue. Several people in the group have family members who are gay or lesbian and a number of us have gay friends. After our first meeting, one of the group members brought a friend who belongs to another church but often attends one of our women's groups. Halfway through our session this friend, I'll call her Nancy, felt comfortable enough with us to share that she is a lesbian. She told us that she was approached by some fellow church members about becoming a deacon in their church. She felt she had to turn this down because her church does not allow homosexuals to be deacons. Nancy said that she hadn't done anything but that she is not considered good enough simply because of who she is. This is very painful for her since she feels called to serve and would very much like to serve her church. Over the weeks, this painful subject came up over and over. Nancy's input gave our discussions a whole new perspective and we appreciated her candor. She related a meeting with a GLBT group (gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender) where a woman exclaimed with tears of joy, "God loves me!" Nancy realized that this was the first time in this woman's 50+ years of life that she had felt this way. How sad. Perhaps those of us who profess to be followers of Jesus need to work a bit harder at emulating his love rather than trying to judge our fellow human beings.

If the Shoe Fits. . .

I am not a shoe person. I do have members of my family who could be described this way, including my oldest daughter. On her Christmas list was a sparkly pair of green shoes that could be purchased online. I bought them for her. They are a lot of fun and look great on her. However, that is not me.

My approach to shoes is to buy what I need and that’s it. I will keep shoes for years. In fact, I own shoes and boots that are older than my daughters. That doesn’t mean that I don’t care how they look. I appreciate a stylish pair of shoes—I just don’t get terribly excited about them. Now, as I’m getting older, I appreciate a well fitting pair of shoes, especially ones with good arch supports. Comfort is everything. Pretty shoes are no good if they hurt your feet.

It seems that I have been forced to focus on shoes these past couple of months. My shoes all seem to be dying at once. The dances we’re learning in my tap class seem to be getting faster and faster and my shoes were inadequate. I had looked around at the few dance shops in town about a year ago but didn’t find anything suitable. The steps requiring us to go up on our heels hurt my feet. However, when I realized that something was beginning to poke into the ball of my foot, that was it. I bought new tap shoes.

Next was the hiking boots. I bought my good old leather hiking boots at REI in Berkeley over 25 years ago. Good quality boots. The only problem was that they were never fully broken in, even after all those years of use. Still hard as a rock, instead of the boot giving, my foot did. If I didn’t get a blister, I would at least have red spots on my feet. After two summers of saying that I was never wearing those boots again, I finally did something about it. Bob was looking at sandals at REI and suggested that I try on boots. It took me a week to decide but after climbing on their little rock with the handrail to truly try them out, I selected a great pair of boots made with synthetic materials. Now, if those boots will last 25 years, I’ll be set!

Last night I went square dancing with shoes that are probably 30 years old. Something was beginning to poke through the heel, so I couldn’t really put my entire weight on it. Old, white, dirty square dance shoes. What was I thinking? Why was I still wearing them? Today, I found the little square dance shop that is located in someone’s home (the only place available in Boise) and I bought a pair of black dance shoes. They were even on sale!

I’m not done yet. I have been trying to replace the brown shoes I wear to work. They are to the point where I hesitate to wear them when it rains. Still looking. However, I have found some great casual shoes on sale during my search. Who knows? I might actually begin to enjoy shoe shopping. But probably not.