POST 58: How to Bring Good News with Our Feet
POST 58
How to Bring Good News with Our Feet
Are you wearing shoes? Take them off.
Really. In fact, take off your socks too. This is a barefoot-required post.
Take a few moments to look at your feet. What are they like? Where have they been? What story do they tell?
When I (Brad) think about my feet, I think about my dad. For the last twenty years of his life, he was a paraplegic—he couldn’t feel or move his legs or feet, so he used a wheelchair. In contrast, mine have run a marathon.
I also think about my grandma. Her feet spent most all of her ninety-seven years of life grounded on a farm in central Kentucky—the same farm where my mom grew up and where I grew up—walking cow paths and wading creeks. But my feet have also tramped across the country and the world, now rambling where I live in Southern California.
The condition of our feet makes a difference in the way our story unfolds.
The choices available to us shape the literal paths our feet walk.
Up to now, life has mostly made those choices for you. Your body and its abilities, strengths, and struggles. Your ancestors, your parents, your teachers, your community. There are also the big forces that expand or limit our choices such as family finances, race, class, and immigration status—not to mention local geography, ideals, and politics. So many factors!
Going Somewhere
So what happens when more choices are up to you?
That might sound stressful.
Let me lower the pressure here: today we’re going to think less about where you’re going to go and more about how.
Look at your feet again. What makes your feet look either good or not so good? It depends on who is setting the standard, right? The prophet Isaiah had something to say about that. In one of his writings, Isaiah said our feet look good—even beautiful—when they bring good news: “How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of a messenger who proclaims peace, who brings good news, who proclaims salvation” (Isaiah 52:7).
Isaiah is using the image of a message bearer on foot, coming over mountains across the borders from another land. The messenger might actually be yelling “GOOD NEWS! GOOD NEWS!” to anyone who can hear. For the people in Jerusalem at that time, it meant the return of their relatives from exile. It signaled a new era, and even the sense that God’s presence was returning to the land.
That all sounds long ago and far away. What could it mean for us now?
Feet still bring good news. And people still need good news in their lives—in a big way. You may feel a little awkward running down the street yelling “GOOD NEWS!” to strangers. That’s okay. The “news behind the news” to Isaiah’s listeners was that God is bringing his reign—God’s kingdom—into our midst. That’s what God was up to then—and still what God is up to now.
My story could be a beautiful story whether my feet had mostly stayed in the same community my entire life like my grandmother or my feet had stopped working altogether like my dad’s. Our feet are beautiful because of the good news—the way we live out God’s message in our big decisions and everyday choices.
In other words, it’s not so much where your feet are going but how. When you walk with good-looking feet, you’re living out God’s purpose for you.
READING GOD’S WORD
How beautiful upon the mountains
are the feet of a messenger
who proclaims peace,
who brings good news,
who proclaims salvation,
who says to Zion, “Your God rules!” (Isaiah 52:7)
As shoes for your feet put on whatever will make you ready to proclaim the gospel of peace. (Ephesians 6:15 NRSV)
REFLECT AND RESPOND
Journaling Questions
When have you experienced someone who had beautiful feet—who brought good news into your life?
Look at your feet again. Where have they been? Where are they going? What stories do they tell?
Where might God want to take your feet? How can you go in a way that truly carries good news to others?
Pray This Prayer
Lord, you made my feet. You know where they’ve been and where they will go. This is all too big for me to imagine or control. Help me today to be someone who brings good news through the way I live—in my words, actions, and decisions—right now. And help me to imagine a future in which my feet carry hope wherever they tread. In Jesus’ name, amen.
SOMETHING TO TRY
Write “GOOD NEWS” on your foot—you can decide which foot, where, how big, and if you want to decorate it. If you’re a minimalist, just use the initials “GN.” Up to you. Here’s the point: whenever you see your mark this week, let it be a reminder that wherever your feet go, you can bring good news to the world around you.
THE TAKEAWAY
Your feet are beautiful because of the good news—the way you live out God’s message in your big decisions and everyday choices.