In this season of getting to know one another, we are learning a lot about what gets done/needs done, how things happen, and why things happen… as well as why we individuals do what we do and care about what we care about. So while I would love to have individual conversations with anyone curious, I thought I’d lay out a general explanation of one of those more frequent questions about me that tends to be raised: the way I wear sandals or am barefoot most of the time. The shortest explanation is that it has been an intentional spiritual practice for more than twenty-five years.
This practice started early on in college, when a particular combination of circumstances coalesced. While my faith in God was quite solid, my way of believing in God and living out my faith had completely fallen apart and was being rebuilt. Among other things, I was increasingly struck by the “right here” quality of Jesus’ kingdom, which was contrasted significantly with the God I had been taught about (who seemed to only be concerned with the eternal future). Through my classes, I encountered the deeper and wider traditions and history of Christianity, of which I had been ignorant. And I was increasingly feeling a kind of call on my life — a call that I now connect to the call to ministry, but which then I only realized as a call to a deeper life and commitment with God.
One day, as I scooted from my climate-controlled dorm room, to a climate-controlled car, to a climate-controlled classroom, to a climate-controlled cafeteria, and so on — I had a sudden realization of just how insulated I was from the world. My college life was not just a bubble (like most) that was separated from the bigger world. I seemed to take every opportunity to separate myself from God’s creation, shielding myself from even the tiniest discomfort. In that moment (the culmination of many moments of building awareness), I saw that God was more vulnerable to creation than was I. And taking inspiration from some of those spiritual giants I had been learning about, I felt called to make a commitment.
There is a long history in Christianity of being barefoot or sandaled as a spiritual practice — it is called being “discalced.” The Franciscans practice it as an outward sign of their poverty. Some Carmelites practice it for the same reasons, though it seemed to me to be a little more colored by their focus on the incarnation. Perhaps it is easiest understood through the analogy of Moses that the preacher made at my ordination: If God is with us, then there is nowhere that is not “holy ground.” And so my practice began as a means of imitating the vulnerability of Christ to creation and honoring the presence of God wherever I was — never intending anything permanent and not really knowing what I would discover along the way. But that is the way of all spiritual practice, for we cannot control the transformation that God brings to us.
I’d love to hear about your spiritual journey. Send an email, give a call, and let’s find some time to connect.
Pastor Michael