Shoeleather Love

^Koolau Mountains, O'ahu, Hawaii^

My Dad used to teach a class at our co-op called Shoeleather Christianity.  He would explain it to me by saying he was trying to give Christianity shoes.  Walking the talk.  What does living this radicalness look like in "real life?"  He'd probably call it orthopraxy now... I should call him and ask.  Anyway, it got his students to think about how they should live their faith every day, hour and minute.


The class I find myself in now is "shoeleather love," if you will.  More and more I feel that love is all that matters.  Hear me out.  If you know me personally you know I could take or leave the romance bit.  I'm talking about real love.  Love that seeks the other person's best no matter what the cost to self.  Love is sacrifice.  Love is patience.  Love is for your enemies and those who hurt you as well as for your friends.  Love is a gift, a word, a back-rub at just the right moment.  Love is time. Love weeps with those who weep.  Love rejoices with those who rejoice.  Love is slow to anger.  Just read I Corinthians 13 folks.  Love never ends.

This is BIG.  So here's the deal.


I know from the Bible that life is short, heaven and eternity is real, and only what I do for Christ matters (forever!).  I also read in the Bible that Christ says the first and greatest commandment is to love God.  I'd say "first and greatest" is a good place to start, wouldn't you? Great.  So...loving God.

What does that look like?  How do I do this with every fiber of my being every minute of my life?

That's the question.  I don't have the answer yet, but I'm going to be sort of journalling through my meditations and conclusions here, and I'd love your help.

Let's put some shoeleather on this and wear it out!