There may be some things of which it can be said that one size fits all, but shoes are not among them. Shoes are very personal, and when they’re wrong, they’re wrong. If they hurt, they hurt. With some things, you can make do with the wrong size – a belt that’s too long, pants that are a bit snug, a shirt that’s big enough to write a speech on it – and it won’t matter much. But if I don’t have 9-D’s on my feet, I hurt.
Shoe shopping is not my favorite thing. I know that there are people who make shoe shopping an Olympic sport, but I am not one of them. I am not interested in rifling through scores of boxes, comparing styles, harassing shoe salesman. In fact, I am so not into shoe shopping that I have found one brand that fits me well, it’s comfortable and affordable, and when I see this particular brand on sale, I buy two pairs, one black and one brown, and that’s it. Done, finished. I am not Imelda Marcos, piling up hundreds of shoes in a rainbow of colors. I get one black, one brown, 9-D, Barrington, done.
But I can’t recommend that to you, now, can I? I can’t recommend that to you because one size does not fit all. Nor does one style suit all. Nor is one price affordable for every budget. Nor is every shoe the right one for every occasion. I can’t recommend that you follow me to the store and get shoes just like mine. What I can do, however, is to suggest that you and I walk a mile in other people’s shoes. A Lakota Indian proverb has it, “Never criticize someone else unless you walk a mile in his moccasins.”
So I’ve worn moccasins today. Even though they are not that regular kind I buy so often, these are my favorite shoes. They are comfortable, they slip on and off quite easily, they hold up well on all sorts of terrain. I like my moccasins.
But if I am going to do battle in the world, and especially if I am going to do battle for peace and justice, I need to walk a mile in other shoes. I need to feel what it is like to carry somebody else’s burdens and to accept somebody else’s responsibilities. I need the kind of shoes Paul spoke about in his passage about the full armor of God –
As shoes for your feet put on whatever will make you ready to proclaim the gospel of peace.
Whatever will make you ready to proclaim the gospel of peace. In other words, put on whatever shoes will help you do what others need to have done. The kinds of shoes that they wear, the burdens they carry, the responsibilities they have – we need to feel our way into those things. Walk a mile in others’ shoes, and you’ll be on the battlefield for the Lord.
Early in His ministry Jesus attracted a great deal of attention. His teaching, His preaching, and most of all His healings brought the crowds. When He got back to Capernaum one day, the buzz on the streets was that Jesus was home. They all came running to hear what He had to say and to receive what He had to give. They came running, they filled His house, they crowded the street – so many people, so eager to be close to Jesus. One man who was paralyzed was carried by his friends. They couldn’t get through, so they took their friend to the roof, they peeled back some tiles, and they lowered their friend down to Jesus. This man had some very special friends. I like to think that to do what they id, they must have been equipped with just exactly the right shoes.
I
For example, I imagine them wearing boots, good strong hiking boots, so that they could march through the crowd and carry their friend to where Jesus was. Their friend was paralyzed. He couldn’t walk on his own. He needed help. Four friends, determined to get to where the action was, set out to do what had to be done. Nothing was going to stop them. I imagine them wearing boots. Hiking boots. Marching boots. The obstacles were many. But if you wear hiking boots, you mean business. You are going in there, no matter what stands in the way. Too many people; thick walls on the house; a roof that had to be peeled back, but they were not going to be stopped. Determined.
If you would do battle for the Lord, walk a mile in their shoes. Walk a mile in their marching boots, because there are going to be a lot of people who will try to discourage you if you have set your course to work for justice. Kingdom causes are not for the faint of heart. God’s work is not for the timid. You must be clear about what God’s work is all about. If you’re clear that what you are doing is God’s work, there’ll be no stopping you. You will march on. But if you don’t know what God’s work involves, that it is about justice and peace and bringing people to Jesus, you will let anything stop you. If you don’t believe that what you are committed to is God’s will, and you are trying to march out of your own energies, you will get tired. You will wear out. You will be stopped by any obstacle. If you would do battle for the Lord, walk a mile in their marching boots.
Stories abound from the civil rights days. Stories like those told about Rosa Parks, who got the Montgomery bus boycott started. How, after days of walking to work instead of riding the buses, she said that her feet hurt, but her soul was refreshed. About how, when they marched to Selma, they sang, “I ain’t no ways tired.” If you are committed to march for justice, and you know that God’s truth is marching on, you will wear marching boots, and tramp out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored. If you are committed to march for peace, to help the helpless and befriend the friendless; if your walk is to carry others to Jesus, you will march on until victory is won, with no discouragement. Walk a mile in marching boots. Nancy Sinatra sang it for us, “These boots are made for walkin’” If you know God’s will, you’ll march on, no matter what the obstacle.
II
The time comes, however, when you are on the battlefield for the Lord, that marching boots are no longer what you need. The time comes, when you’ve made your moves, and your work is under way, that you begin to hear murmurs, grumbling, complaints. The time comes, when it's not so much the enemy out there you have to worry about as it is your own friends. The folks you thought would understand. The people you supposed would grasp of the importance of Kingdom work.
But what do you hear? Something like what Jesus heard. Something like what the folks sitting around had to say:
Now some of the scribes were sitting there, questioning in their hearts, "Why does this fellow speak in this way? It is blasphemy! Who can forgive sins but God alone?"
Jesus healed and Jesus forgave, but that brought out the gripes and the grumbles. Who was it, now, who complained? Who was griping? Look at it: from those who were sitting there, questioning. There will always be those who will merely sit and question. I can deal with those whose questions come out of their work for the Lord. But I have problems with those who simply sit down and lift up nothing more than questions. That pinches, that hurts.
You’ve tried to help someone who’s in trouble, and someone says, “Don’t you be using up money and time for outsiders.” You’ve tried to invest in missions, you’ve spent time in one of our ministries or going to Johenning Center or down to Central Union. And your neighbor says, “These people aren’t worth it. They aren’t going to change. You’re a fool if you think you can change the world all by yourself.”
Ever hear that kind of thing? It hurts, doesn’t it? It pinches. Feelings get trampled on. So I recommend that when that time comes, you walk in a pair of steel-toed shoes. Shoes with a special inner lining made of steel. These shoes of mine are old and battered, and well they should be. These shoes date all the way back to when I was a college student, in engineering school. I had a job for several months in Akron, Ohio, at a tire factory. No, it wasn’t Firestone, so don’t blame me for tires that fly apart! But they said, if you go on the factory floor, you must wear steel-toed shoes to protect your feet. Things have a way of falling; you might stumble into machinery. You must protect your feet. So buy some shoes with steel toes in them. The fact that these are battered and bruised tells you that they do their job. I’ve used them since those long-ago days for things like walking behind the lawnmower or lifting heavy loads. They work! Why, only this morning, I counted my toes – one, two, three, four, five, six – they’re all there!
Walking in steel-toed shoes: that’s is my way of saying that when you do battle for the Kingdom, someone will not understand. Someone will criticize. Someone may try to sabotage you and trip you up. So you have to be ready. You have to have such a grasp of what you are about and why you are doing it that the carping of those who are sitting around, doing little or nothing, just bounces off.
The issue with many of us is that we do get our toes stepped on, we get a little hurt, and we limp away from the battle. Especially if the weight was dropped on us by another soldier in the army. The church of the Lord Jesus Christ loses entirely too many of its warriors for no other reason than they get their feelings hurt, and run off to pout and sulk. Friends, if you allow yourself to get hurt, so that you run off to pout somewhere, you have given ground to Satan. You have let evil win the day.
Remember, if you are in the Lord’s army, hazards come from your own as well as from the enemy. Somebody will choose not to understand. You’re liable to get your feelings hurt. So walk a mile in steel-toed shoes. Know what you are doing and why you are doing it. Be confident; be calm; be for Christ.
III
I have one other pair of shoes in my shoe store today. I find these the most challenging of all. Personally, these are the hardest shoes of all to walk in. I’m not sure I can walk a yard in these shoes, much less a mile. But, I tell you, these are the most important shoes of all.
Baby shoes. Aren’t they cute? Baby shoes are put on that little fellow when he first begins that tentative business of putting one foot in front of another and learning to walk. When those little guys find their feet and figure out that it’s a whole lot faster to get from here to there on two feet than it is crawling on all fours, we know that those tender feet with tiny bones and arches still soft need special baby shoes. Baby shoes are to help beginners learn to walk.
What a picture I see in the house of Capernaum! Here is a man who had been paralyzed, unable to walk at all. Jesus heals him, and what happens next?
[Jesus] said to the paralytic-- "I say to you, stand up, take your mat and go to your home." And he stood up, and immediately took the mat and went out before all of them; so that they were all amazed and glorified God, saying, "We have never seen anything like this!"
Ah, but do you think he stood up and power walked his way home? Or did he wobble on his feet a little? Did he pick up that mat and dance a jig on practiced legs as he left? Or did he maybe take first one hesitant step; and somebody reached out to steady him? And then a second, a little more confident; and someone else took his arm. And a third step, standing up straight; but one of his friends cleared obstacles out of his path. And another step, still more sure of himself; while his fourth friend cheered him on, “You can do it”.
We need to know what it is to walk in baby shoes. We need to be ready to help others in their first tentative steps toward Kingdom service. I’ve said, this one is hard for me. This one I don’t do well. I’m impatient. I’m one who tends to do everything myself and go everywhere on my own. That’s fine, as far as it goes. But, have you noticed, there is no such thing as a one-man army? There is no such thing as winning the battle all by yourself? You cannot face this world alone. If you’re a baby in Christ, you need to be trained. If you’re a grizzled veteran, you need to train somebody else. That’s what the church is for. The church is here so that we can equip each other for the battle. We are to be here for one another.
We have not won the battle for justice and peace if we have walked all by ourselves. We have not done all we could do in bringing others to Jesus if we have brought them all on our own. Our task is to walk in baby shoes and encourage others to walk this walk along with us. Our task is to walk in baby shoes and be sure that we do not walk alone, but as part of a mighty army that one day will win the victory.
A little child, learning to walk, sees his daddy across the room, and knows that’s his goal, to get to daddy. He stretches out his tiny arms and in those baby shoes takes a few steps, maybe falls down, but he’s on his way to daddy. He’ll get there. Just like that, all around us there are people starting out for the Father. Some are going to stumble and fall. But if we understand them, and encourage them, and equip them, and leave off the criticism, and set aside the grumbling, they’ll get there. They’ll get to the Father.
You’ve heard the Gospel according to Mark today. Now hear the gospel according to Elvis:
“Walk a mile in my shoes; just walk a mile in my shoes. Before you abuse, criticize, and accuse, just walk a mile in my shoes.”
As shoes for your feet put on whatever will make you ready to proclaim the gospel of peace.
Whatever shoes – boots to keep on marching, steel-toed to protect against hurt feelings, baby shoes to help beginners. Or just the friendly moccasins. Walk a mile in their shoes. Nike has it right: “Just do it”.
