8-26-21
(1 minute, 54 seconds)

“I’m very sorry Jill,” the assistant said to me apologetically. “We weren’t able to save your sole.”

Ever since my botched total hip surgery, I’ve had a “hitch in my get-along” and a difference in the length of my legs. This significant misalignment has made it necessary for a shoe prosthetic to be built into my left shoes so that my gait is balanced and I don’t incur any more damage to my spine and hip.

For a shoe to come home to my closet, my shoe guy has to look at it from a structural standpoint and tell me if he can add a lift to the shoe without destroying its foundation. In my experience, there is usually a 50/50 shot that the shoes I like can be altered. Even then, occasionally the tread or sole of my shoe gets toasted in the altering process.

I try hard not to get too attached to cute shoes anymore.

The clinic receptionist and I are on a first-name basis. She knows I have a thing for shoes. My adorable sneaker which fits-like-Cinderella’s-glass-slipper, was the one she was calling to apologize about. They put a lift in my shoe but they had not been able to save my sole. It was functional but just looked a little…different than when I brought it in.

Losing my sole in the process of getting a new and usable shoe isn’t the end of my wardrobe. In the big scheme of things, I know the sole of my shoe has little value.

It’s not so well with my sole but it is well, yes, it is well, with my soul.
And I’ve been thinking a lot lately not about my sole, but about my soul.

“He restores my soul”, says Psalm 23:3.
I notice afresh, I don’t restore my soul, He does.

Psalm 40 says:
He inclines his ear and hears our cry,
He draws us up from the pit of destruction,
He sets our feet upon a rock, making our unsteady steps secure,
He puts a new song in our mouths, songs of praise to God.

Our job in the realm of soul restoration (Ps 40:1) is to wait patiently for the Lord. One pastor said this can be translated, “I wait while I’m waiting.” The rest is up to God.

He makes broken bones dance again.
He makes crushed spirits sing once more.
He is the Enabler of our praise.

I see in the Psalms a lot of singing praises and giving thanks as markers of restored life. He does the restorative work of our souls; He enables our praise, our soul’s response to restoration.

Seasons of being brokenhearted and spirit-crushed living can feel life-sucking and unbearable. We might “feel” anything but restored. God’s tender promise to us is that he is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit. He says He will deliver us out of our afflictions.

But God does far more than our day-to-day or season-to-season restoring.
Eternal and everlasting restoration of our souls is ours because of our great sacrificial Lamb. Because of Jesus’ atoning work on our behalf, He offers a deeper and comprehensive restoration for our souls. Because He covers our sin, our great Shepherd leads us to eternal restoration.