A fun fact about me is that I love foot massages. I used to ask my friends constantly if they would give me one and almost every time the answer was “no” until finally I asked enough times that they probably only said yes so that I would stop asking. Funny thing is if a friend ever asked me to massage their feet in return i’d roll my eyes and say “no way, I don’t touch other people’s feet”. Ironic, right?
Well this week that changed. Not purposely, though. I was working in the Patience room at Camp Hope when the Tia (caretaker/teacher) in charge of the room asked me to take one of the students outside to massage their feet with oatmeal for thirty minutes. I didn’t think anything of it and said “yes, of course”, but as I sat on the ground massaging the student’s feet I was humbled.
First, the Lord reminded me of the passage in the Bible where Jesus washed his disciples feet (John 13:1-17). In this passage, the Lord also told his disciples to wash each other’s feet as he had done for them. This moment leveled out the playing field for me reminding me of who I am and where I stand. If Jesus, the son of the Almighty God, could humble himself and get down and wash his disciples’ feet then surely I should be able to do the same to others. This doesn’t necessarily have to be literally washing someone else’s feet, but any form of serving others. Who someone is and their status shouldn’t change the way we interact with them. We all belong to the same God, therefore should treat our brothers and sisters equally with love. Who am I to think i’m better than anyone?? I’m not.
Once I was humbled, God hit me with another truth- I can’t keep having this mindset of asking the Lord for something and expecting it to be given to me or happen without me willing to put any effort. Yes, the foot massage thing but more importantly also my relationship with the Lord.
“So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.” James? ?2:17? ?ESV??
I’ve been asking God to heal me from past wounds, but he reminded that in order to be healed I need to be willing to work with him and allow him to work in my heart. Dang. I’ve been running for too long. It’s funny how God uses small insignificant moments like this to reveal something so significant to me. I’m thankful that God is an intentional God and grateful that he doesn’t give up on us. I’ve got some growing to do, and it’s gonna take work to get to where I want to be, but I want the Lord to do great work in me so I need to yield myself to him.
Thanks for taking your time to read this 🙂 Please continue to pray for me and my team too!
All my love,
Melissa
