Stinky Feet

When I was little, I remember laying on the floor in front of the TV almost every night after dinner as our family watched the news and other (more fun) TV shows. My dad, being the hard worker that he was, would always fall asleep in the recliner and eventually we would have to wake him up because the snoring was so loud we couldn't hear the TV anymore. But one of the other things I remember was the smell of his feet. Now, this is going to seem mean, but my dad's hardworking feet, were pretty disgusting! But even though they were pretty gross from being trapped in a work boot all day, I can honestly say that his stinky feet remind me of HOME. Isn't that crazy? I mean, who would WANT to smell stinky feet? Yet, that gross odor reminds me of my childhood and the good times we had as a family each night in the living room. I look back on his feet and the snoring with humor now, but then, of course it was a little annoying.

This week, I washed some feet. Luckily, they weren't too stinky! LOL! I spoke to a group of teenage girls about the meaning of this event in the Bible, when Jesus washed the feet of his disciples. What is really interesting about this story is reading the two accounts in Luke 22 and John 13 together. Jesus knelt to wash their feet while they were arguing about which one of them was the BEST, and all the while the BEST of them knelt at their feet, washing the dirt, mud, animal excrement, and sweat from the feet of sinners. He was even washing the feet of the man he KNEW would betray him. These men were so dirty, they couldn't see how disgusting they were. Who would humble themselves to serve? Only the best of them could-- the only one who never sinned, was able to see just how disgusting they all were and cared enough to do something about it no matter how they would hurt him in the very near future!

I wonder how "stinky" our feet are? Do we ever live with the smell so long that it feels like home? Do we ever truly see ourselves as the "stinky feet" we have become? We are filthy sinners, but often we've lived in the sin so long that we cannot see it as harmful anymore. We are filthy sinners who have learned to live with the annoyance of our sin, focusing on other things instead of being clean. We are filthy sinners who sometimes find it too difficult to humble ourselves to serve others, especially when those people have hurt us in some way. Perhaps if we cared about our "stinky feet," or our sins, we could be the servants God has called us to be? Perhaps we could be the witnesses to the world he desires us to be?