(WARNING TO THE HUMOR IMPAIRED – The following post may offend some. If you are easily irritated or have a tendency to email nasty comments to blog writers please do not continue. Thank you).

Recently God has been sending me a consistent message. Get out of your comfort bunker. Give up control and trust Me. I happened to stumble onto a parody of a beloved poem called “Footprints in the Sand”. The original poem was written in 1936 by Mary Stevenson. It told a beautiful story of how God carries you through the hard times. If you somehow missed the original version you can click here to read it (be warned that there are annoying surf sound effects at the site).

But a guy named Sam Glen apparently was getting the same voicemails from God that I have been receiving. Glen did a little rewrite of the beloved poem reminding all of us that just leaving a “mark” is not good enough.

One night I had a wondrous dream.
One set of footprints there was seen,
the footprints of my precious Lord,
but mine were not along the shore.

But then some stranger prints appeared
and I asked the Lord, “What have we here?
Those prints are large and round and neat,
but, Lord, they are too large for feet.”

“My child,” he said in sober tones,
“For miles I carried you alone.
I challenged you to walk in faith,
but you refused and made me wait.”

“You disobeyed, you would not grow.
The walk of faith you would not know.
So I got tired, I got fed up,
and there I dropped you on your butt.”

“Because in life there comes a time
when one must fight and one must climb,
when one must rise and take a stand
or leave their butt prints in the sand.”

That is a real kick in the old sand imprinter. God has called me to action. Jesus said these words to me and every follower that claims His name.

“Go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”  (Matthew 28 – NLT)

It is hard to follow that commandment to go  and still leave a butt print in the sand. So it is time to rise, rake over my imprint in the sand trap of fear and doubt, and go. I want to leave a mark for Jesus. But I want that mark to be the right type of mark that comes from reporting for duty every day and trusting Him for the results.