Jonah and Jimmy Choo

My name is Judi Murphy, and I am a footwear fanatic.  But not just any footwear, mind you; I have a propensity for the finer footwear in life.  Christian Louboutin is a sculptor, an aesthetic genius who works in the softest of leathers and reddest of reds to create masterpieces of style and femininity.  Jimmy Choo inhabits my dreams, calling to me with his siren song, luring me to the depths of his Stiletto Seas...  Sad but true.

However, at some point, the realty exists that while I have allowed myself to be carried away by the illusion of Valentino Garavani's arches resting oh so gently next to mine, I am not where I was born to be.  I was born to Payless parents, cannot justify more than the occasional splurge at Macy's, and would suffer from heart failure if I saw my girls playing "runway" in any more than my Carlos Santana's (and when it comes to my ladies conducting raids on my closet for the sake of play, I have a hard time saying "no."  Doing the same thing with my mother forged an intimate bond and, as I remember it, was my way of developing myself to be like the person I most admired.)

Ironically, Jonah has always been one of my favorite Bible stories.  The classic folly of trying to run from God's plan for one's life, meets God's redirect and redistribution, meets more foolishness.  In short, here was a guy so confident he could escape from God (or, perhaps thought he had escaped from God) that he bragged about it to his shipmates, shipmates who valued God Almighty as no more powerful or omniscient than their false gods -- otherwise they would have sent Jonah packing the moment the boast had burst from his lips.  Nonetheless, it was God who sent the storm, God who determined the lot fell on Jonah, God who brought the whale, and God who calmed the storm, resulting in Jonah's shipmates not only witnessing God's authority and strength, but committing themselves to Him!  As for Jonah, he recognized his foolishness, made haste to obey God's calling, but later begrudged God the prerogative to save Nineveh from retribution because they, like Jonah, had repented!  Truth is, Jonah's physical location may have been in compliance with God's will, but his heart was still far from humble, charitable, Godlike.

While I would never think of putting my family in debt over a pair of shoes, would I be happy with shopping at Payless, limping through the aisle with a disposable Ped, trying to find a place out of the way of traffic, and proudly selecting a pair of tan-soled Fionis?  Perhaps, my heart could use a little more work.