Walk a Mile in His Shoes

Like most women, I own quite a few pairs of shoes and boots. While I’m not in the Imelda Marcos league, I have more than I need. Today, as I tried to decide on a pair, the old Joe South/Elvis Presley tune, Walk a Mile in My Shoes popped into the jukebox in my head. You probably remember the melody, and are humming it right now, so I decided to Google the lyrics: 
If I could be you, if you could be me
For just one hour, if we could find a way
To get inside each other's mind
If you could see you through my eyes
Instead your own ego
I believe you'd be surprised to see
That you've been blind
Walk a mile in my shoes
just walk a mile in my shoes

Later, as I was writing in my prayer journal, the idea of walking in someone else’s shoes filled my thoughts. On occasion, I’ve borrowed shoes, and the only time I had to walk any distance in them, I got some nasty blisters. Shoes mold to fit their owner’s foot, so each one is unique. As I pondered this further, God showed me how we use this line as an excuse for our behavior. I stood accused, again. God’s intent wasn’t to condemn me, however, but rather to allow me to experience how his son felt when he wore my shoes. And he did wear my shoes, and yours, in fact all of ours, for the sole (no pun intended) purpose of knowing what it was like to be human. Now it’s our turn, are we ready to leave our human boots at the doorway, and put on Jesus’? Look back at the words in the song, even though they aren’t scriptural, they could be. If Jesus were the vocalist he would lyrically ask us, if we could be him, for just an hour…if we could truly get inside his mind, to see the world, and those in it, through his eyes. I believe we’d all be surprised, no shocked, at how blind we’ve been. Are you willing to walk that mile in his shoes? Please give them a try, I think you’ll find they will conform to you perfectly.

“Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.” Philippians 2:4-8