The Steve Laube Agency

Who doesn’t want to be a gifted writer? You know, the next Shakespeare. Or Hemingway. Or Hostetler.

Stop laughing. Still, anyone who senses a call from God to write for Him hopes to get really good at it. And the path to the mountaintop, so to speak, will look different for every writer. But we might all do well to take a cue from one of the most reputedly prolific writers in history: Moses.

Remember? He literally reached the mountaintop. And thereafter produced writings that are credited to him as “the books of Moses.” Maybe you’ve heard of them.

But before reaching those heady heights, God met him in the famous burning bush encounter and told him: “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground” (Exodus 3:5 NIV).

We tend to take God’s command for granted, as a matter of course. That’s what you do on holy ground; you take off your shoes. We’ve had those words in our brains since our first days of Sunday school.

But why? Why should Moses remove his footwear on holy ground?

Scholars debate the answer, of course, because that’s what scholars do.

But I find one possibility especially intriguing: The sandals were man-made; Moses’ feet weren’t.

I think that’s a possibility that’s rich in application for us today, as those who feel called by God to write, as those who would hear His voice and receive inspiration from His hand. That is,

Lose your shoes.

Maybe God told Moses to take off his sandals because He wanted nothing to intrude or interfere in the intimacy and clarity of Moses’ coming encounter with Yahweh, the “I Am” of Israel.

And maybe that’s something that distinguishes gifted writers from plain ol’ writers.

Maybe the giftedness, the calling, the inspiration follows the removal of whatever comes between Him and us, whatever will hinder our intimacy with Him, whatever will obstruct complete vulnerability in our relationship with Him and in our writing for Him.

Obviously, I’m not talking about your Skechers or Uggs. I hesitate to even hint at what “lose your shoes” means for you.

Maybe you already know what gets in the way, what gets in between you and God, you and His call, you and the writing.

Could be sin. Some peccadillo you can’t—or won’t—set aside. Some bitterness or resentment you haven’t surrendered.

Could be fear. Fear of failure, perhaps, or even fear of success. Fear that critique or submission might expose you as an imposter, a wannabe who’s not yet good enough, not yet perfect.

Could be shame, a suspicion that God can’t or won’t use you, that you can’t write because you don’t deserve to be heard, read, respected, valued.

It could be none of these things or all of these things.

But I think for any Christian writer to be a truly gifted writer, it starts there. It starts on holy ground. It starts with losing your shoes, and removing anything man-made and human-caused between you—God’s precious and unique creation—and Him, between you and His call, between you and the writing.

So, will you? Can you? Lose your shoes?

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