The Other Shoe

Some seasons of life throw a lot at you. You wonder what else could go wrong. “Waiting for the other shoe to drop” started as an expression referring to the experience of living in thin-walled and crowded boarding houses of New York City and Chicago in the early 20th century. Tenants could easily hear one shoe and then another drop in the upstairs apartment when a neighbor got home from work and headed to bed. Late at night, noisy, and predictable, we all are more aware of the dropping sound of the shoes of life. The first shoe doesn’t seem so bad, but anticipating the second one is distracting. The expression has come to mean the expectation of an inevitable negative event and the stress that goes with it.

When the other shoes keep dropping, you wonder if there will ever be an end to this pattern. You ask repeated questions like the Psalmists did – “How long?” (Ps. 6:3; 13:1;90:13; 94:3,…)

Right now, my shoes of life include a friend whose spouse is in the last days of a two year battle with cancer and the familiar, but incredibly difficult hospice predictions as the end draws near. My shoes include a loved one with unresolved serious health issues. My shoes include a close friend that received a pacemaker just in time. My shoes include managing healthcare for a 90-something parent. My shoes include a new friend recently diagnosed with liver cancer. The list goes on, but there will always be a second shoe in these pairings, and I can’t help but think I’m not ready for whatever it is. And, waiting is just very hard. Life is inevitably hard. Where can I stuff my stress? “How long?” is the million dollar question.

I’ve asked God many questions, while still placing my hope in Him. Psalm 13:1-6 (ESV) provides a better “other shoe” perspective without minimizing the hard stuff or abandoning trust in God: “How long, O Lord? Will You forget me forever? How long will You hide Your face from me? How long must I take counsel in my soul and have sorrow in my heart all the day? How long shall my enemy be exalted over me? Consider and answer me, O Lord my God; light up my eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death, lest my enemy say, ‘I have prevailed over him,’ lest my foes rejoice because I am shaken. But I have trusted in Your steadfast love; my heart shall rejoice in Your salvation. I will sing to the Lord, because He has dealt bountifully with me.”

Job was right in that terrible place of facing more suffering than seemed bearable, yet had to completely surrender to the sovereignty of God without yet knowing about the hope of the Gospel. In the New Testament we are blessed to receive unimaginable comfort in the sovereignty of God, because we now have a Risen Savior Who came down and experienced comprehensive darkness and every kind of suffering. Jesus is the reason we can trust in God’s steadfast love and salvation. He is the reason we can sing. He is the reason we can hope. He is the reason we can experience His ultimate bounty.

When the other shoe drops, which it will, I will keep my heart fixed on Christ. Hebrews 4:15-16 (ESV) says, “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but One Who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”

Even without the New Testament Gospel news being unfolded yet, Job personally experienced God’s presence and answers to his “how long” kinds of questions. Job 42:1-5 (NIV) is one of my favorite testimonies: “Then Job replied to the Lord: ‘I know that You can do all things; no purpose of Yours can be thwarted. You [God] asked, “Who is this that obscures My plans without knowledge?” Surely I spoke of things I did not understand, things too wonderful for me to know. You [God] said, “Listen now, and I will speak; I will question you, and you shall answer Me.” My ears had heard of You but now my eyes have seen You.’ “

I may ask lots of questions of God, I may not feel ready for any shoes to drop, and I will surely not escape suffering on planet earth, but my Anchor is solidly Jesus in the inevitable storms of life. As one sufferer put it, cancer is just a little “c” and Christ is definitely a big “C.” Keeping that perspective makes the “other shoes” quietly land in the sturdy arms of Jesus rather than on the thinner-than-paper floor.