Five Dollar Cheapie Sandals

Eric and I have been traveling to L.A. every weekend to visit different church plants in order to get ideas and see what is working for other successful church planters.  We attended Mosaic church’s evening service at the Mayan theatre in downtown L.A.  The sermon was about sacrifice and how we as Christians are called to make sacrifices just like our Lord and Savior did on the cross.  The pastor, Erwin McManus, talked about Abraham and Isaac, Paul, and many others who made sacrifices in the Lord’s service.  I nodded along with him as he asked us how willing we are to make sacrifices.  I thought, “Well shoot, Eric and I are willing to take a leap of faith and start a new church — surely that counts as pretty major sacrifice.”  I was feeling pretty good about myself, then McManus did something I didn’t expect.  McManus looked out into the audience and said, “It’s easy to talk about sacrifice, but let’s put our words into action.  There is a homeless shelter not too far from here and they are in need of shoes to give to the people who stay there.  So, I thought, how awesome would it be if all of us in this room today left our shoes on this stage to donate to the people at that shelter?”  Now, I would love to say that my initial response was a favorable one; however, my first thought was, “Thank goodness I’m not a member here, so I’m exempt from participating.  Besides, we have several errands to run after the service and I can’t just walk into places with no shoes on, you know the signs ‘No shoes, no shirt, no service.’”  I looked down at my feet and saw my five dollar cheapie sandals and thought, “Well, I guess I could give these away they’d be easy to replace.”  Then, I looked over at Eric’s feet.  He was wearing his favorite pair of shoes, the ones I had given him for Christmas.  Now, you have to realize, buying my husband shoes is a difficult task, he has flat feet and very exacting taste so finding him a pair of shoes is quite an ordeal.  To my amazement and shame, Eric had already  removed his right shoe and was untying the other.  I then took off my sandals and followed him to the front where we left our shoes on the stage.  After the service, we walked out onto the sidewalk of Downtown L.A. in our barefeet and I was struck with the thought, “Wow, there are people who walk these sidewalks every day with no shoes  and I struggled to give up my five dollar cheapie sandals when I have an entire closetful of shoes awaiting me at home.”  I asked God to forgive my selfish attitude.  I marveled at how willing we as believers are to say “sure I’m willing to sacrifice my life in the Lord’s service” and yet we hang on to things like a cheap pair of five dollar sandals.  So I just want to conclude by asking you, “What ‘pair of five dollar sandals’ are you unwilling to sacrifice in order to follow  the Lord wholeheartedly, today?”

Click on the following link to hear the sermon, “If Everyone Sacrificed” by Erwin McManus.

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