It was bone-chilling cold outside, as most nights are in Chicago. I had just gotten off from waiting tables at a restaurant on Chicago’s famous Magnificent Mile and was making the trek back to my apartment. I was disappointed that my tips were nothing more than a measly nineteen dollars. I just wanted to get home and have a cup of warm anything and call it a night. I had my head tucked down as low as I could get it into my scarf, I barely noticed the lady sitting on the sidewalk until I nearly stepped on her. The bitter cold compelled my unfiltered response, “Mam, don’t you have anywhere you can go to get out of the cold tonight?! You could die out her.”
She raised her head and looked at me. Her cheeks were as red as stop lights and with lips as chapped a the Sanhedrin dessert she reply, “No sir, I am homeless.” Slightly embarrassed that I’d made her state the obvious, I was at a loss for words. That, and I had no idea what to do for her. I paused for a moment with our eyes locked.
I knelt down to look in her eyes in hopes that a warm smile might be of help, “Is there anything I can do for you?” I feebly murmured.
“Are you wearing socks?” she asked.
“Socks? Um, yes,” looking down as if had to check, “yes, I am wearing socks. Why?”
“My toes are freezing.” she asked politely, “Can I have them, please?”
“Of course you can.” I sat next to her and started untying my shoes. As people passed by (even a couple I had just served at the restaurant), they looked at me perplexed as to why I was taking my shoes off—next to a homeless lady, nonetheless. I pulled off my socks, apologized if they smelled, and helped the woman put them on her icicle feet.
With a final greeting, I bid my new sock friend farewell. My feet were cold, but my heart was burning inside. I will never forget the walk home because it was as if God had a few words with me. Josh, you know I am good and gracious, but you don’t live like you believe it because you complain about what you don’t have rather than reveling in what I’ve given you. I am sovereign over the sun… I am sovereign over your socks as well.
This was profound! You see, I was nothing more than a grumbling mess on my way home from work that night. And not only had I been grumbling about my tips, but for weeks – maybe even months – my prayer life was full of nothing more than telling God all the areas my life that weren’t adding up. My schoolwork was insurmountable. My bills were more than my income. The girl I wanted to marry wouldn’t even date me. The loneliness I felt thousands of miles away from my family was killing me. Complaining had become a way of life… until I gave that lady my socks. Something happened when God reminded me that my finite problems were nothing compared to His infinite supremacy over the details of my life.
It doesn’t matter that I’ve grown up in the church, attended Bible School or preached hundreds of times about God. I still struggle to understand who He is and how that really affects me. Sure, I began believing in Him when I was a child, but as I’ve grown up there have been many things I’ve realized that I don’t understand about Him. And when you have a God that is not easy to understand, if you are not intentional to pursue Him, He can seem very removed at times.
