Would You Rub My Feet?

As I adjust to my new life, I wonder and I ponder and I consider. I say to myself, "God, what do you want me to do? Am I doing all that you are asking of me? Am I doing enough? Am I touching the right people?"

In the midst of these Mt. Everest-sized questions, God is speaking in curiouser and curiouser ways.

"Would you rub my feet?" He asks.

Recently I went to my pastor's house who lives a few doors down. He had become very ill and I wanted to help the family.

So I show up at the house in grubbies with my mind set on something momentous like digging a new foundation for the house or taking out an oak tree with a dull plastic knife, or perhaps single-handedly re-working all of the plumbing in the house.

As I stood over my pastor, who had his legs elevated, he asked not for a mighty deed of heroism, but only this small request, "Would you rub my feet?"

What? Rub his feet? That's just plain weird. One man does not simply rub the bare foot of another man, particularly if that man is his pastor. It's just weird. And uncomfortable. And not manly like digging foundations.

"Really?" I stumbled. "Rub your feet?"

"That'd be really great, Jack. It would get my circulation flowing. Would you please rub my feet?"

So faced with the options of wimping out or showing my stupid manly hang-ups, I bent down, took his foot in my hands and begin to rub.

Soon we were joking about it and as his wife walked in and then his daughter, we all shared a smile and a tease. I simply quipped that this was Biblical and Mike asked me if I would then wash my feet with tears and dry them with my hair!

I realized that God had answered my prayer to serve. It wasn't service leading to the salvation of thousands and it wasn't in teaching from some pulpit. It was in the humbling act of responding to the request of a great man who needed his feet rubbed.

If the Creator of the Universe could wash His disciples' feet, I could tend to my pastor.

I recommend this. If you ever have the chance to do the smallest thing for the least of the Kingdom of God, jump out of your social boundaries and leap at the chance.

Mat 25:34 NKJV - Then the King will say to those on His right hand, 'Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: for I was hungry and you gave Me food; I was thirsty and you gave Me drink; I was a stranger and you took Me in; I [was] naked and you clothed Me; I was sick and you visited Me; I was in prison and you came to Me.'

Mat 25:37 NKJV - "Then the righteous will answer Him, saying, 'Lord, when did we see You hungry and feed [You], or thirsty and give [You] drink? When did we see You a stranger and take [You] in, or naked and clothe [You]? Or when did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?'

Mat 25:40 NKJV - And the King will answer and say to them, 'Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did [it] to one of the least of these My brethren, you did [it] to Me.'

And Debbie, please forgive me for those times when I did indeed, not rub your feet. I was wrong. And I love you.

Jack