Shoes… they’re just shoes. Most of us wear them. Stepping into who knows what all day.
Off and on, on and off; shoes come off and on, several times a day. Until last July, 2025, we were required to remove our shoes when going through airport security. Finally. Now we can keep our shoes on.
You may have walked past a comfortably looking chair in a mall, someone smiling, waiting to clean your shoes. We often passed a chair tucked along a busy shopping street in Vienna. Someone ready to serve.
Shoe shiners in the US have served travelers for decades at airports. On your way to the gate, a brief stop for a shoeshine can be a chance to connect with someone offering a major kindness with an inexpensive polish.
For one woman who shined shoes at Denver, Ronald Reagan, and Dulles International airports, the work is more than a business. She recently expanded Executive Shine at Charlotte-Douglas International Airport, employing about 100 people. “It’s all about the love,” she says—showing love and kindness to everyone who sits in her chair for a shoeshine.
It’s all about the love… when shining shoes!
Recently, three pairs of shoes… my shoes… were setting in the sun on the table near Tom’s shop. I stopped, thankful in awe at the time and love it took to clean these… especially the dirty white pair. He has washed, cleaned and shined my shoes these 61 years.
Tom makes sure his shoes are polished; he remembers sitting in “the chair” of his uncle’s barbershop as a young boy, waiting for a polish and a buff. His father had served in the Navy, and another uncle was in the Army, where shiny shoes were a must! He has always polished shoes.
That same shoe care extended to me and the children. Often two, three, four or more pairs of shoes would be lined up on a cabinet or table, ready for Sunday morning.
My definition of a man… a real man… is a velvet covered brick (this phrase coined for leaders by Howard Butt in the 1970s. Of course, it can describe anyone, but for me, it defines a real man!) Tough and tender. Soft, gentle on the outside, strong, secure and safe inside. A real man serves because he loves, strong enough to clean shoes.
Servanthood is an active lifestyle— NOW, today, not only when it’s convenient. I have never asked Tom to clean my shoes, but I’m quite sure I have taken this gift for granted these many years. It’s just something he does!
We have the example of Jesus in John 13 washing the disciples’ feet. For certain, feet get a little more personal than shoes. Washing another’s feet in New Testament times was a task considered so low, it was usually done by non-Jewish slaves. “Having loved His own who were in the world, He now showed them the full extent of His love” (verse 1). This was an act of humble service—the lowest… but the highest.
Shining shoes and washing another’s feet is all about the love. And serving… I can’t separate loving and serving from being kind. To anyone. Everybody. No matter what kind of shoes they’re wearing or how dirty they are.
Changes in footwear and fashion have lessened the need for this service in today’s scene, and many in this type of business find themselves no longer shining shoes. But imagine, if we were all velvet covered bricks, secure enough to serve others… washing feet if necessary. Imagine, too, how this would effect social media.
… it’s all about the love!
John 13:12-15
When he had finished washing their feet, he put on his clothes and returned to his place. “Do you understand what I have done for you?” he asked them. “You call me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord,’ and rightly so, for that is what I am. Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet. I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you. (NIV)
