Daddy Was Right

by Victoria Gaines
Published July 18, 2006

“You’re gonna ruin your feet with those shoes,” he said. I laughed. Daddy’s words seemed silly. What did he know about women’s shoes anyway?

But the day of the pretty shoe has passed. No more strappy sandals, pointy toes, high heels, flip-flops, pumps, or backless mules. Neither boots, nor clogs, nor Espadrilles shall grace these largely unremarkable yet totally flat feet of mine. Forget stilletoes. My shoe fetish gravitates towards those adorable little slides in multi designer colors, but they don’t support my feet. Thanks to cute shoes, I can’t walk without excruciating pain. Two searing cortisone shots in the tops of my metatarsals recently silenced all desire for chic couture footwear. With one glance at the podiatrist’s long needles, Daddy’s words came back to haunt me. Fashion, get thee behind me! I need to be freed from the manifestation of Morton’s neuroma and plantar fasciitis.

Actually, I need to be freed from a lot more than that. But do you realize how vulnerable your feet are? Limping for the sake of style is ridiculous. Enter the wise podiatrist: “Get decent arch support, heel support, don’t cramp your toes, and give this cortisone time to ease the inflammation along the nerves in your feet.” Call me a woman with desperate feet. Finding the functional shoe was now my mission. My ugly orthopedic options proved disheartening, and before I realized it, I had blamed the Lord, saying, “Why did you give me such retarded feet!"

“It’s the shoes, my child.” Same thing Daddy tried to tell me.

Whenever I struggle in life, as painful and discouraging as it feels, it’s never because God has failed to be faithful. More often than not, I’ve tripped over my own negative attitudes and stubborn desires. Sometimes I stumble because I’ve yet to discard the very things that encumber my walk with Him. But the painful reality of difficult circumstances has a way of pointing me back to the Lord for loving intervention. That’s when I remember that fleshly pride and “keeping up appearances” may have become more important than letting God have His way with me.

Even the monotony of life consumes me when I forget to listen to God. I make impulsive decisions with wrong motivations. Maybe I blame others when things don’t go my way. My heart aches with confusion. Painful recollections swell inside my heart until I’m forced to my knees. Only God can show us where the problem is. Only He can heal the pain. Run as we may, the truth will find us, yet it’s a good thing when we limp our way back to God.

I’m struck by the timeliness of God's Word: “...throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us" (Hebrews 12:1). What is the Lord saying? What causes us to veer off His path for us in the first place? Is it unforgiveness? Jealousy? Pride? Selfishness? Stubbornness? Anger? An ungrateful heart? These things cripple our walk with the Lord. But we can turn to Him, confess these sinful habits, and let Him cleanse us, free us, and heal our souls.

Maybe I can’t run a marathon right now, but as I listen to God's heart, respond to His careful instructions, and get rid of whatever hinders my faith, I have a chance to heal and get back in the race. His Word supports me. Flat feet or not, I trust that God will give me the "feet of a deer" and enable me to "go on the heights" with Him no matter where life’s path takes me.

It may take sneakers or Birkies to get me there, but Daddy was right—it’s definitely the shoes.

"The Sovereign Lord is my strength; he makes my feet like the feet of a deer, he enables me to go on the heights." ~ Habakkuk 3:17 (NIV)

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