What Becomes our Master

I am hosting a bachelorette party for my friend, A, Tuesday, so went to Walmart for some supplies and wine. As I was checking out, the cashier picked up the wine bottle and asked for ID.
"You're being proofed?" asked Asherel, "They don't think you are 21?"
"I look very young for my age. Thank you ma'am," I said, handing her my ID, "I haven't been proofed in thirty years."
"We're required to proof every one," she said. (OK, cross her back off the christmas list.)
Well, honestly, I knew it was either that or else she was blind as a bat, or she thought I dyed my hair grey, and used reverse anti-aging cream to add wrinkles since I am such a rebel.
"Do you need help out with your bags?" she asked.
Well which is it? Am I a nubile 21 year old, or a senior citizen wobbling on death's door step?
"I think I can manage," I said, handing the bags to Asherel.

I actually did need a little help. I had been breaking in the shoes for A's wedding and my feet hurt. And on top of that, my wrists which had been healing had taken a very bad turn for the worst. I think hoisting all the honeymoon clothes for my friend when I took her shopping re-strained the tendons. I am back to square one on the pain in the wrist.

So I was indeed wobbly and sore. I didn't feel even close to 21years old. When I got home, I propped my aching toes up. I opened my Bible and read these verses from Lamentations:
"her toes have become her masters; her enemies are at ease. The Lord has brought her grief because of her many sins."

WHAT!? God could not have been more pointedly speaking directly to me. Here I sat with my tortured toes, bandaged and throbbing. My toes are my masters! I am in pain with blisters and bunions and old easily bruised heels because of my sins. I work hard each day to understand what God is trying to say to me, and now this...this....this stinging condemnation.

Then I blinked. It didn't say "toes". It said "foes". Maybe this verse wasn't targeted just for me....Or if it was, maybe it wasn't about the folly of shoes with heels. Maybe it had to do with something deeper. I thought about the verse and how foes can become masters. Anything that captures our attention and takes it away from God is our foe, in the largest sense. And anything that captures our attention becomes our master. It isn't even necessarily an inherently bad thing. Beautiful shoes with toe numbing heels can indeed become our foe, if we are spending so much time looking at them, that we forget to be looking up at God.

I told my husband, "Did you know I got proofed at Walmart?"
He laughed. (PS- not the right response, buckeroo)
"What do you think of that?" I challenged him.
"I think you are a hot chick," he said.
Ok, he is back on my Christmas list.

Lamentations 1:5 (NIV)
Her foes have become her masters; her enemies are at ease. The Lord has brought her grief because of her many sins. Her children have gone into exile, captive before the foe.

Romans 6:14
For sin shall no longer be your master, because you are not under the law, but under grace.

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