My bright shoes! via instagram

This past weekend, for the first time in my life, I got bright colored shoes. I’ve always wanted a pair of colorful shoes, I just haven’t had a pair before.

The biggest reason for this is that I simply never made it a point to get them. My desire for a pair of bright shoes was never matched with a desire to buy a pair (and since I got these for free, I still haven’t paid for any!). Simply wanting something or saying you want something is not the same as doing what is necessary to get it.

And yet, this is often how many describe their spiritual life and/or how they view God. We want to know God or have a relationship with him, many just want to know if he cares or if he even exists.

The one who has My (Jesus) commands and keeps them is the one who loves Me. And the one who loves Me will be loved by My Father. I also will love him and will reveal Myself to him.”

-John 14:21

Who wouldn’t want, if it is truly possible, to know the Creator of everything in a personal way? Yet so often that is where it stays, simply a desire.

In his book Conformed to His Image Kenneth Boa writes,

For years, I have desired the ability to sit before the keyboard of a piano and make glorious music. But my craving to do so has never been matched by a willingness to invest the time, energy, and discipline to make it happen. Only those who pay this price of the freedom to make the instrument sing. Thus discipline is the pathway to freedom rather than bondage.

Contemporary culture today views anything that gets in the way of personal gratification as, for all intents and purposes, “old-fashioned.” Nothing should stand in your way of getting what you want when you want it “as long as it doesn’t hurt anyone else.”

But what were to happen if we were to truly seek God? What if we found that his standard of morality and how he calls us to live actually frees us to experience true joy?

If God is truly an all-loving and all-powerful God, then he will reveal himself to anyone who truly not only desires, but seeks him.

And the best part is, just like my bright shoes, Jesus’ gift of love and forgiveness is free to those who ask.

Don’t just desire to know God, seek him. In time, you will get your bright shoes.