EMBODIED LIVING: USING OUR FEET TO WALK IN PEACE

Did you know that the word “feet” is written in the Bible over 200 times? With both spiritual and physical significance, it’s no secret that our feet play a vital role in supporting us and enabling our bodies to move. This includes using our feet to spread the good news of peace and salvation:

“How beautiful on the mountains
are the feet of the messenger who brings good news,
the good news of peace and salvation,
the news that the God of Israel reigns!” (Isaiah 52:7 NLT).

In John 20:1-4, we get a clear picture of Mary Magdalene and two of Jesus’ disciples using their feet: “Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance. So she came running to Simon Peter and the other disciple.” Verses 3-4 continue: “So Peter and the other disciple started for the tomb. Both were running, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first.”

Are you also imagining this moment, visualizing two of Jesus’ disciples sprinting, heart rates rising, to see with their own eyes what Mary Magdalene had seen? I enjoy exercising, so the “running” in this passage really stands out to me.

No matter how long I have been stretching and strengthening my feet (and my whole body) and teaching others to do the same in my role as a Christ-centered movement instructor, God’s design of the body, his “masterpiece” (Ephesians 2:10 NLT), and what he allows us to do with it never ceases to amaze me.

With 206 bones in the adult body, over 600 muscles, approximately 30 trillion cells, and about five liters of blood, it’s clear that God, the Master Architect, had a purpose-filled plan for the body when he created it. With so much architecture inside our bodies, I believe the best part, though, is that we have the Holy Spirit within us, moving on our behalf, and with whom we get to move. As John 14:17b (NIV) says, “…But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you.”

Moving my body in connection with a keen awareness of the Holy Spirit within me became a revolutionary spiritual practice for me. Embodied movement even led me to write the book Rhyming with God: Poetic Prayers & Reflections, as several of those 30 writings emerged from deep within after I moved my body as a form of prayer or devotion in motion.

Dear God of Peace, thank you for the gift of my two feet; they are a real treat. Please help me take good care of them so I can move well and share your gospel of peace. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

Throughout this day: Explore stimulating your feet—such as pointing and flexing your toes and rotating your ankles in both directions—while remembering the bigger reason why we need to keep our feet mobile and strong: to walk in peace with God and others as we share the gospel of peace.