(to want) beautiful feet

I sit once again in the calm chaos of Nairobi, Kenya. I have come back. To a city I call home. To a country I fall deeply in love with over and over. But this time I come with an organization that has a very bold and unapologetic mission pulsing throughout their work. As a Christian I believe we are each called, by faith and obedience to our God, to live out his words of Truth. This includes being His hands and feet. Responding to the needs of our communities, our families, our brothers and sisters. Even our enemies. To love our neighbors, to clothe the naked, and to feed the hungry. It also includes sharing the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

I spent a week at headquarters in orientation before heading out to the field. It was a difficult week for me. I don’t enjoy being preached at. There is a passage in Romans, chapter 10, where Paul is speaking to the Israelites. Asking them of their unbelief and in all logic, what they are to do about it. Verse 8 begins:

“’The word is near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart,’ that is, the word of faith we are proclaiming: that if you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved.  12For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile – the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him, for, ‘everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved’.  14How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone sharing with them? And how can they share unless they go? As it is written, ‘how beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!’ 17Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ.”

I strongly believe verse 17 to include all of Christ’s words, including those of action calling us to ask, seek and find. To go, to be beautiful feet, means using them. Our feet were made to keep us standing strong, to give us the ability to run, to close distances, to step forward. I wish it were as easy as a good soap and water scrub and a pretty pedicure. I have a feeling Paul had a dirtier picture in mind. The earlier verses are pressing me to read over and over again that it is not only through our actions, but also by our words. Our confessions by mouth, our faith by heart, and our actions by reaching out and stepping forward.  

I am great at the behind the scenes. I love getting my feet dirty. I’d rather not at times open my mouth. This calling, Paul’s command to the Israelites, is a challenge for me. Wise women passed on the reminder before I left to come here that it is fearful and more dangerous to live outside of God’s calling, than it is to answer it. I’m begging to differ. But I know they are right. Thankfully, I am not asked to do it alone.