I gasped aloud.
The epiphany hit me— hard.
For weeks, the nightmare of me preaching on stage without shoes played itself over and over. Humiliation lingered.
Convinced it was spiritual warfare, especially since it happened the morning I preached on being set free from shame, I shuddered.
Finally, I shared the nightmare with a mentor. My face flushed. Surely, there was just NO other way to interpret the dream than to see it as my deepest fears revealed- to be shamed in public. In the nightmare, no one listened. Everyone laughed, critiqued.
“But this dream is much more than about fear. It’s about holy ground.”
“What?”
“In the Bible, God told Moses to remove his shoes because he was standing on holy ground. God’s message to you is to ignore the voices of the world, the validation of the public, and just to focus on Him alone. He’s reminding you that when you speak, THAT is holy ground.” He winked, “All eyes on Him.”
I fell apart. It was spot on.
That Sunday when I spoke, I was afraid. All I could see were my bullies walking into service yelling at me to get down. I was petrified.
But the dream, now unveiled in a new light, blew my mind.
Like Moses before the burning bush, I was overcome with awe.
When you’re putting yourself out there to help others, does fear ever arrest you? Do you picture someone in authority minimizing you? Know this- that warfare is real. The fear of backlash, of critique is real.
But what if you imagined yourself, shoe-less? Not to be shamed, but because God said, “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground” (Ex3:5)?
When you’re consumed by a burning bush, enraptured by the presence of a holy God, all you do becomes an act of reverence. Everything fades away.
Nothing else matters.
If you’re on the brink of taking a risk for God and afraid of backlash, would you close your eyes? Take a deep breath. And see yourself, shoeless, if but for a moment?
May that burning bush experience remind you that the only voice that ever matters is His. And May that leave us, forever changed, for the audience of ONE.