Especially when you're walking on a cheer mat.
I'm the emcee for our school's pep rallies, and we had our first pep rally of the school year on Friday. Naturally, I figured it would be a wise idea to wear my gold heels that day—I mean, it was Homecoming, after all. I'm pretty good at walking (and sometimes running when I'm running late for the bus leaving for convocation or when I realize I just set off the alarm in the school and have 60 seconds to get from my classroom to the back doors to disarm the system), so I honestly didn't think a thing about me having any trouble at all walking around the gym floor in my heels.
But I hadn't factored in the cheer mat element.
And I really wish I would have.
The cheerleaders had put out large blue mats for their stunts and tumbling routines, and the mats remained on the floor for most of the pep rally, because they also had the markings for where all of the kiddos who were nominated for Homecoming court were supposed to stand. I can't recall a time in the past where I've walked on such a material in heels before, and I wasn't hesitant to do so.
Until I took my first step.
As soon as my foot hit that mat material, I went into an inner panic attack of sorts. I felt incredibly unstable and was certain I would fall at any given moment. My legs even started shaking a bit. At one point, I was announcing a kid's name for the court, and my heel got stuck in one of the cracks of the mats. I couldn't move. I wasn't sure what to do, and it took me a few seconds to weasel it out of there and still try to look like I wasn't having complete difficulty doing a task I normally do with such thoughtlessness: walk. I developed a tactic of walking off the mat and onto the gym floor periodically, but I couldn't stay there very long, because all of the cheerleaders were sitting in front of the mats, and I would trip over them rather than my own shoes.
It was quite the predicament, I must say.
Somehow, I made it through the entire assembly without falling flat on my face. Although it would not have been the worst thing in the world to trip in front of the entire school as I was attempting to pump up all in attendance for the big game that night, it wasn't exactly something I was wishing would occur. But at least I learned a valuable lesson: when you wear heels, make sure you are walking on surfaces that are conducive to you looking like you possess at least a slight amount of gracefulness.
And obviously foundation is important.
We go through life often letting ourselves try to strut around without the firm footing we truly require. We need that solid, hardwood gym floor, yet we continue wobbling on puffy, foamy stuff that isn't strong enough to keep us up for very long. And sometimes we get so far out there on it that there isn't that security of the hard floor being there for us in a step or two. The truth is, though, we need that hardwood floor to be our constant surface; we need to fold up the cheer mats and get on solid foundation before we can even attempt to walk in any type of shoes.
Thank God that's always an option.
We have the opportunity to be on secure foundation at all times from the One who cares for us the most. And, when our heels get caught in sticky situations, He's there to pick us up even if we do end up falling down.
Cheer mats might be good for tumbling, but I don't want to tumble, and I certainly don't want to stumble. I want to walk on firm grounding with the confidence and security that even my sassy heels aren't going to be detrimental to my existence. I know there will still be times where I let myself wander back onto the foamy instability, but thankfully the hardwood will never be too far away—because He's never too far away.
It's good to know that it's still safe to walk through certain adventures in heels—especially if they're gold.
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