The senior slowly took both of his football shoes off in front of his locker, stood up and approached one of the sophomores in the locker room. As the senior handed his football shoes to the sophomore he said, “Clean these shoes up and shine them before tomorrows game and bring them to me at suit up time.” The sophomore looked around to see if any of his classmates were getting shoes to clean and shine and they all were receiving shoes from the seniors.

My first thought, as a sophomore receiving a pair of football shoes from a senior, was this guy would beat me up both in and out of practice if I screw this up and didn’t clean and shine his shoes or forgot to bring them to the game the next day. As I left practice that night those shoes were the most valuable thing in my life for the next 24 hours.

Our practice field, back in those days, had plenty of dirt and very little grass. The night before our Thursday practice it had rained, so the field was muddy. So the football shoes I received were totally covered with mud. So when I got home I took the laces out of the shoes and washed the laces in the sink and then hung them up to dry. Then I went outside with a screwdriver and putty knife and slowly started to scrape away the mud on the shoes. When most of the mud was off the shoes I started in with a wet rag to get all the mud off.

Next I took a blow dryer to the shoes to dry them up some and then began to shine the shoes with black shoe polish. After I was done with the senior’s shoes, I then started cleaning my own football shoes. Coach had told all of us to clean and shine our shoes so we would look our best before the game.

Our lives at times reflect those dirty football shoes. We live in sinful ways and have mud and dirt all over us not just on our shoes. Galatians 5:19-21 says, “The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.”

1 John 1:7 says, “But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.”

Our souls are the most valuable thing about us and are much more important than a pair of dirty football shoes that need a good cleaning.