1.28.2011

Dirty Feet - 1.28.11 0930


Donald Miller writes about an idea in his book Searching for God Knows What that has sparked a lot of thought for me in the past. He says that at the fall Adam and Eve began to draw their self-worth and value form other people rather than God. As humanity began to grow, some people were raised and respected more than others, and everyone began looking for ways to be raised and respected by comparisons. Appearance, athleticism, skills, anything really so as not to feel left in the dust behind everyone else.

Pride.



We can recognize this easily in ourselves every time we say, "But at least I..." God must have intended a very strange world to our current way of thinking. An actual "all men are created equal" type of world, where self-worth and value was determined solely on God, where you always searched for ways to lift others up because you saw how much God cared for them and valued them.

There's no doubt that God was pained when Adam and Eve began to turn away from him to find their worth in other things, and I think one of the many ways God began the restoration process that would culminate in the sacrifice of Christ was the concept of humbling yourself. Others have value. look to lower yourself and raise others. Recognize what others have to offer you.

Remove your sandals.

The Middle East in general, and Hebrews in particular, understood man as being created from the ground. For the Hebrews this was refined further as the "dust of the earth." Thorleif Bowan says that the addition of the word "dust" was essential to the Hebrew worldview, because being created from the earth did not carry with it enough weight towards reminding them that their beginnings were humble. God raised the dust of the earth to rule it. And after the Fall, it was to the dust they would return.

I haven't looked into it yet, but I think the reason why God required people to remove their shoes in his presence and on holy ground was that it was to serve as a reminder of where their origins were. The ultimate "I brought you into this world and I can take you out again." In order to work with humanity towards humbling itself again, God first had to humble man to him.

If you can't humble yourself to God, who can you humble yourself to.

Jesus's ministry built on this further. The Golden Rule, the last shall be first, Paul's call to the church to regard others as higher than you all seek God's intention that humanity would humble itself to each other by seeking their value instead from from God.

Removing your shoes does not carry with it the full humbling weight like it used to, but let's seek out what can. What can we do to remind ourselves of our humble beginnings, that our self-worth is from God, and to place others above ourselves?

What can we do to dirty our feet?

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