“Of course, I know who you are!”

I sit near the Lovely Lady in my easy chair watching television.  She says she likes to listen to the programs because she has her eyes on her stitching and doesn’t want to lose her place. So, when I teasingly echo the evil politician in the cop show who has asked the inevitable question of the patrolman who pulled him over, she replies without looking up.

“Do you know who I am?” (That’s me, you know.)

“Of course, I know who you are!  You’re the guy with his right shoe untied!”

She’s not wrong.  It is untied.  It may be untied again now as I sit at my desk and peck away at the keys, late into the night.

It’s a phenomenon I cannot explain.  At least once a day—for the last several months—my right shoe comes untied. It might be while I’m taking a walk outside, or walking into the kitchen for another cup of coffee, or even heading to my desk to write a line or two.

It’s always my right shoe.  Every time.

I asked that mysterious being in my smartphone about it the other day.

“Hey, ◼◼◼◼!  Why is my right shoe untied?”

The disembodied voice tries, but I don’t think she understands the question.  No help at all.

I could do some research on my own, but I really can’t be bothered.  I’ve gotten used to it and am more amused than annoyed by the errant string.  I usually just re-tie the shoe.  Or take both of them off, left and right.  That feels better anyway.

And sometimes, like the evening in question, I simply let the shoelace flop around wherever I walk.  It bothers her.

I guess I knew it did.  Still, I was surprised when she mentioned it the afternoon after that little conversation.  Evidently, she doesn’t want to be married to the guy with his right shoe untied.

She had been awakened during the night by a foot cramp and, trying to get her mind off the pain, lay in bed beside me trying to think of ideas that might help with my problem.

“Do you tie the right shoe differently than the left?”
“Maybe you could take the laces out and put them back in, but in the other shoe.”
“Would it help to put something on the laces—like wax or something like that?”

I didn’t really know I had a problem.  I wasn’t working on eliminating said problem.  And, I’m not going to put wax on the laces.

I’m fine tying my right shoelace again and again.  I am.

But, I heard a line in a television show recently about a man who is disappointed that he never became the man he wanted to be. Something in his life held him back.

And now, I’m wondering if my right shoe is holding me back.

Worse, I’m wondering now if there are other things I haven’t thought of that could be holding me back.

I’m not the man I wanted to become.  I’m not.

Oh, I never wanted to be rich, so there’s no disappointment there.  I never wanted to be famous.  Or powerful.

But, I do want to be the man God wants me to be.  I consider the words of The Teacher to the religious leaders who were trying to trap Him in error. You can read them in Matthew 22.

I’ve spent years working on the most important part.  Most of my life.  I’m trying hard to love God with everything I’ve got.  Everything.  I haven’t completed the quest, since it’s a lifetime commitment.  And, I’m still working on it.

But, the second part—the loving my neighbor in the same way I love myself part—that’s not coming along as well as it could.

And now, I’m wondering if there’s something similar to having my right shoe come untied every day that’s holding me back from achieving that goal.  Something insignificant.  Something I’ve decided I can just live with.

It’s always the little things that trip us up, isn’t it?  We take care of the big stuff, but we’re careless—literally, without care—about the little, peripheral things that will lay us out, making it so we can’t accomplish the big ones.

Little things, like shoelaces.

The writer of Hebrews in the Bible warned us:

“Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us.” (Hebrews 12:1, NLT)

I’ve got some work to do—finding the little things that keep me from the bigger goal. 

I bet I’m not the only one.

I may even find out why my right shoe won’t stay tied.  She’ll be happy if I do.

It’s time to run.  Again.

 

“Sometimes, when I consider what tremendous consequences come from little things, I am tempted to believe there are no little things.”  (Bruce Barton)

“He will call for them from the ends of the earth, and they will hurry to come.  Not one of them is tired or falls. No one sleeps. Not a belt is loosened at the waist, or a shoe string broken.  Their arrows are sharp, and their bows are ready.” (Isaiah 5:26-28, NLV)

 

© Paul Phillips. He’s Taken Leave. 2025. All Rights Reserved.