This weekend I had the opportunity to help a friend who is a chicken farmer. This was the first time I’d been inside a chicken house. I was amazed at how many birds could fit inside one house!

We walked around the chicken house making sure the birds were getting the right amount of water and food, the fans were working, the houses were at the right temperature and all the other duties that go along with chicken farming. We walked from house to house making sure that everything was just right. The one thing you couldn’t help but notice was the strong smell of Ammonia made as a by-product of the natural waste from the chickens.

When we got back to the farmhouse, I kicked off my boots and had a revelation. I now understand why cowboy boots don’t have tread. The tread of my boots were caked with – well, chicken poo. Given the cold weather, it was frozen into the tread pattern on my boots. I worked for over half an hour trying to pry the debris out of my tread. I hosed them off, I used a stone to scrape them, I hosed again, and the ritual continued. At the end of the ordeal, I still did not have completely clean boots.

This whole thing got me thinking how similar life is to this. As we walk around in life, we tend to pick up bad habits - generally, because we are not prepared for the day. We’ve not spent time in the Word, we’ve not spent time in prayer and we’ve simply thrown on our boots and plunged out the door.

As we live our life, these habits we pick up stick with us. Later, when the Spirit begins to do a work in that area of our life, we find ourselves having to labor to “clean out the tread”. All too often, the scars and remnants left over from the choices of our past never really leave us.

Cowboy boots, however, have no tread. The debris of the field doesn’t stick to them and what does manage to grab a hold is easily washed off. How much easier our lives would be if we walked in cowboy boots! Think about this as you reflect on the choices of your past and realize the hassles many of those decisions have made in your present.

The Word tells us to be in the world, but not of the world. Sometimes it’s hard to not get stuck in the muck of the world and track it around with us. I urge you to stay in the Word, stay in prayer and be mindful of the decisions you make each day. Strive to live a tread-free life!