Take Off Your Shoes

For many years now I have had problems with my feet.  They have become increasingly stiff and prone to cramping in the arch.  The stiffness has extended up into my calf muscles which have been bound up really tight for a long time.  When I would lay down at night my feet would ache miserably and shooting pain would go through my toes for several minutes.  I have a great chiropractor and two awesome therapists who have brought a lot of healing into my life through the application of their knowledge, ability, and determination to make things stretch or move into place.  But, even they would tell you that my feet and calf muscles have been a real challenge.

A little over three weeks ago I had just laid down for the night and I was going through the familiar pain routine waiting for the pain to stop.  I said a very short prayer, it went something like, “God, I would really like it if my feet did not hurt like this.”  Almost immediately that still, quiet voice in my life replied, “Take off your shoes.”  It was a pretty simple instruction but before I slept I decided to try to remember to take my shoes off whenever possible starting the next day.  I spent the next four days with The Dumanis Project at Victory Bible Camp, nobody seemed to mind when I attended the sessions in my bare feet.  Since then, any time I am in a place where I can take off my shoes I do so, and some pretty neat things are happening.

First I noticed that my feet were popping in just about all the joints.  Sometimes this hurt but only briefly.  Almost immediately the shooting pains in my toes went away at night.  As the bones and muscles in my feet have started to move again I have gained considerable flexibility and range of motion.  This has not stopped at my feet but has begun to change the way my muscles act clear up my leg and into my lower back.  Who knew this could happen?!?  Well, I just sat down at my computer and Googled “health benefits of going barefoot” and it seems that over 1.4 million hits on the internet have information on the subject.  My therapists knew, but how in the world could they have possibly known that I haven’t taken my shoes off in thirty years.  The upshot is that my feet are becoming feet again instead of snugly wrapped, well supported appendages.

As I have considered this over the past days James 1:5 keeps coming to mind.

James 1:5  But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all generously and without reproach, and it will be given to him.

So, I get the asking part, but how many times have I brushed aside the quiet, simple instruction thinking “surely this is more complicated than that”, or some other such thing.  In this case God gave me the wisdom to follow the instruction.  The knowledge that surrounded me could then be applied and my feet could become feet again.  It’s just so much easier to picture God reaching down His finger from heaven and fixing whatever it is we are asking for.

Later in the book of James he makes this comment on wisdom.

James 3:17  But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, reasonable, full of mercy and good fruits, unwavering, without hypocrisy.

I intend to spend more time listening for the quiet voice in my life that seems to always speak succinctly the truth I need to hear.

His Kid, Your Brother

Ken