I am surprised how quickly I wear out the tread on my walking shoes. I usually walk 5 days a week and it doesn’t take long for the soles to become smooth. About the same time, the shoes break down in the arches, leaving very little support.
This was happening once again so I bought a new pair of athletic shoes. I wore them a day or two, but one day while getting them out of the closet, I spotted my older shoes. I was surprised how nice the older shoes still looked, so I decided to wear them instead of the new shoes. After a couple of days back in the old shoes, I began to get foot cramps. Finally I felt a very sharp, unexpected pain in the arch of my right foot.
I had been unwise. I was limping back home in pain, while my new shoes sat in the closet doing me no good. I was wearing worn-out shoes that no longer gave me the support I needed.
We can be like those old shoes, looking good on the outside with hidden problems on the inside. I thought of Matthew 23 when Jesus was talking to people like this. These people were recognized as being religious, but they had some serious heart issues. Verses 27 and 28: “What sorrow awaits you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees. Hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs – beautiful on the outside but filled on the inside with dead people’s bones and all sorts of impurity. Outwardly you look like righteous people, but inwardly your hearts are filled with hypocrisy and lawlessness.”
The outside doesn’t matter if the inside isn’t clean. It doesn’t matter how we appear to everyone if our hearts are not right.
From now on, no matter how nice my walking shoes seem to be on the outside, I will replace them when the time is right. I am affected by the unseen more than the seen.
Likewise, who we are inside is the most important thing.