Kevin Elko and Touchdown!

My good friend Bert Sims suggested I read Touchdown! by Kevin Elko. I am in the process of reading it and will post a short review next week. But I read a story in the book which I just can’t hold back. Elko is a sports psychologist who has worked with the Crimson Tide, The University of North Carolina, Miami and other great sports programs.

Elko tells of meeting a security guard stationed on the ground floor of one of the World Trade Centers on 9/11. As the building burned above him he was trying to get people off the stairs and out the door. He said he kept yelling to the women “Take off your heals, take off your heals!” Their stylish shoes were making it hard to run through the rubble that covered the streets. Only by getting rid of the shoes could they run to safety without falling and being trampled.

Elko notes that to be successful you sometimes have to leave baggage behind. He doesn’t make the point quite as well as the Bible which says,

“let us also lay aside every weight and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us” (Hebrews 12:1).

It’s not always the physical things like shoes that slow us down. It’s our attitude, our guilt, our anger, our confusion, our mistrust and so many other ideas that distract us from the importance of following Jesus. What weights are you carrying? What obstacles are those weights preventing you from overcoming?

It’s time to take off your shoes!