Have you ever heard the phrase, “waiting for the other shoe to drop?” I would guess that most people have heard the saying, if not used it themselves. I’m pretty sure I’ve told this story before, but, it’s a great visual…this dangling shoe over your head, threatening to fall smack on the top of your noggin. Familiar with it or not, we are all likely to understand the implication.

The saying, as I understand it, came from back in the early 1900’s in America, when the industrial age was underway. At the time, there was a lot of tenement housing built to accommodate a multitude of workers. At the end of the day, people would be coming home from work, having dinner with their families, then retiring to bed. Late at night, because the walls and floors were not well insulated, it was easy (and startling) to hear a sturdy shoe drop and hit the floor overhead. Even though it was a common sound, the initial drop was still unexpected and good for a jolt to someone just drifting off to sleep.

ANYWAY….once the first shoe was heard hitting the floor, there was always a wait for the inevitable drop of the other shoe. The goal, of course, was to stay alert and prepared for the sound in order to minimize the jolt to the system. That rush of adrenaline that leaves you feeling a little shaky and unsettled. This is a fabulous analogy for the ups and downs of life. I supposed that’s why the saying still exists today, even if its origin got a little lost in the sauce.

When things go wrong in life, I would venture to say that most of us then find ourselves on guard, waiting for something else to go wrong. It is difficult to relax because the feeling of being so unprepared is quite difficult to tolerate. I think this is one of the greatest battles of humanity. We get so focused on trying to be prepared for something going wrong, we don’t settle back and enjoy the peace that exists between the battles.

There has to be a realization that there will always be more shoes waiting to drop. As a pragmatist, I understand that this is a fact of life here in a broken world, and I stopped waiting and wishing for it to be different. As I see it, it’s important to learn to adapt to the sound of the falling shoes, rather than trying to stop the world from wearing them.

My greatest source of strength is holding fast to the knowledge that, no matter what happens in this life, it’s temporary, as this is not my final stop. I have a future beyond the time spent here…one where I am blessed to live without the suffering and pain of humanity. No matter what happens to me here, my future is still the same. My faith in this bit of knowledge definitely aids in my ability to persevere.

But it isn’t just about persevering. It’s about persevering with grace. This means, even though you’ve accepted the fact that shoes are always going to drop, you still voice your complaint with every plop. In this way, if you continue to curse the existence of the shoes, then you’ve not truly accepted the fact that they also must drop. You have to find it in yourself to both experience the jolt of adrenaline without staying stuck in the jolt. All that does is allow additional adrenaline to flood into your system, which will then take that much longer to dissipate.

Now, I’m not sitting here telling you to refrain from feeling upset or hurt or angry when one of life’s shoes drops on your head. I’m simply saying that, once it drops, focus more on moving forward than on being angry that the shoe dropped in the first place. That extra anger is what will add more fuel to your fire, which will make it more difficult for you to find your way back to peace. You have to remember that everybody wears shoes (troubles) and it’s important to have grace in the face of that fact.

God has already overcome the world…it’s not your job to do the same. It’s your job to remember that He did it, trust that it was enough, and keep your focus more on how He can use you than on how you can use Him.