Vacuuming My Dusty Shoes

Where I'm at: On the couch
Weather: Clear, 70 degrees (nice evening!)
Noises: Grandfather clock every 15 minutes
Sights: Glow of my laptop in the dark room
Mood: Clean and relaxed -that glowy, calm feeling when showered after working out


Today, I didn't bring any new verses with me to memorize. So, as I hiked the hills, I tried to recall the 4 verses I already memorized.

• Because of Your great love for me, You, God, who are rich in mercy, made me alive in Christ, even when I was dead in transgression. It is by grace I have been saved. Ephesians 2:4-5

• When I said, "My foot is slipping", You, Lord, supported me. When anxiety was great within me, your consolation brought joy to my soul. Psalms 94:18-19

• Merciful God, restore to me the joy of Your salvation and grant me a willing spirit to sustain it. Psalms 51:12

• Father, help me humble myself under your mighty hand, that you may lift me up in due time. I Peter 5:6

That last one, I had to look up - for some reason, I only remember "Father", and then my mind goes blank, then I remember it has to do with being humble....but nothing more comes to my brain. I'll have to repeat that one again, until I have it stuck in my mind.

The rest of my walk was spent asking God what He wanted to say to me today. I'm trying something new with Him.<: In the past, my time with God was usually planned - I had certain scripture I was going to read, subject matter to look up, or use the Daily Bread...something - but I chose it - and then asked God to speak to me through it. And, He usually did. But, what if God had something else to say to me? What if, on His end, our conversation wasn't over?

So, today - I asked God if He had anything He wanted to speak to me about. And a booming voice from Heaven said., " ". NOTHING!

So, I kept walking. When I reached the first big hill, and started the climb, I began looking at my shoes - you know how we often look at our feet when we are hiking - watching where we step...and I was reminded how dirty my shoes are! All week, I told myself that I will clean my shoes up after hiking, and I didn't do it once! They were pretty dusty! My hiking shoes are a dark brown, and the dirt trails I walk in are a light rusty brown, so my pretty, dark brown shoes are covered in this light, rusty brown color. So much so, that when I put them on and take them off the dust flies!

OK - back to my thoughts while walking...I'm looking at my dusty shoes, remembering that I've been planning to clean them up every time I'm done hiking - but haven't done that. And then it happened. God spoke to me. It was just a thought in my mind. A memory of something I read in the Bible. But it was so cool! So, I continued on my walk mulling it over. And guess what happened? God continued to speak to me - in my mind and in my heart. I have to say - it was pretty awesome!

So, what was it that I remembered? I looked it up when I got home. It's found in John 13. It's when Jesus washes the feet of His disciples - verses 5-15.

Some interesting observances:

• Jesus did this after the Last Supper. It is one of the last acts He did with His disciples before His death on the cross. It was important to Him to pass down to them.
• Jesus came to each disciple and washed their feet - not their hands, face, underarms (<:) - just their feet. But they had to be willing to allow Him to do it.
• Peter questioned Jesus regarding his foot washing. Jesus tells him you may not get this now, but you will later. Peter says You will never wash my feet, Lord! Jesus responds with - If I don't wash you, Peter, you have no part of Me! (Wow!)
• Peter then wants to be washed from head to toe! Jesus says you are already clean, just your feet need washing.
• Jesus tells His disciples that just as He has washed their feet, so they are to wash each others.

So, what does this mean to me? There are so many life things that could be applied to this story, but I'm sticking with the one God spoke to me about. Here goes...

Back in the days of Jesus, everyone walked everywhere. They didn't have the variety of shoes we have today. Bascially, it was probably just leather sandals that were worn most often. Feet got dirty a lot! You could be clean from head to mid-calf, but your feet and ankles were probably dusty and dirty many times through out your day. To keep your feet clean, your would have to wash them - often.

We, as disciples of Christ, are commanded to go into all the world and preach the Gospel. It's a dusty, dirty world, and our feet will get dirty often. Was Jesus giving us a visual reminder to allow Him to wash our feet - remove the dust, dirt, mud, crap we have collected from living in this world? This isn't talking about salvation. As Jesus said to Peter - you, as a whole, are already clean - I am already saved, cleansed - through accepting Christ in my heart. It's about washing the "uck that gets on me every day - just from living in an imperfect world.

To me - this is about forgiveness, helping each other along life's way, accountability, serving each other, humbling ourselves - sometimes it take humility to wash another's feet, and sometimes it take humility to allow someone else to wash your feet. The point is, Jesus thinks it's important for my feet to be washed when they get dirty. When "life" happens, I'm exposed to sadness, anger, frustration, abuse, evil, etc. It affects me, even if it doesn't result in sin. It's important that I be washed,-cleansed from the "uck" that attaches itself to me. When sin occurs, it's important that I ask for forgiveness, receive forgiveness and start again.

And, again, it's a family/community expectation that Jesus passed on to us. We not only get our feet washed by Jesus - but from each other. But how often do we really do this? So we get a lot of dust, a lot of "uckiness" and build-up on our hearts - and then the washing becomes a huge deal.

That's what happens when I don't allow my "feet"(heart) to be washed - before I know it, I have a year's worth of "dust" caked on me, and I can't even see the true color of me "feet" (heart). And I realize that a little water and sponge ain't gonna cut it! To have clean feet, I will need to soak them in HOT water, scrub them with a rough loofah sponge. They will be red and soar for a while. Just the thought of it makes me want to ignore all the grime that has built up, and just continue on my way. It will hurt too much to get a washing now!

Jesus must have known it would be difficult for us to do this. So He gave us a beautiful picture of it in His Word. Encouraging us - inviting us to allow Him and others to wash the part of us that gets dirty most often - our heart.

So, tonight, I vacuumed my dusty shoes. They look beautiful! Clean, fresh and ready to hit the trails again tomorrow! I know...I'll have to vacuum them again tomorrow, but it won't take as long because I will only have 1 day's dust, not two weeks, two months or two years!