Ready to RiseSample

Our Weary, Wounded Feet

Life can be so full that it’s easy to lose focus and feel drawn to things that have a detrimental impact on us. Some of our weaknesses even start as strengths. Then our exercise habits become addictive or we use relationships to numb our feelings or our love for others turns into doing things because we need to be needed. 

Take a few moments now to read John 13:1–17. Jesus left His prominent position to wash His disciples’ feet before He commissioned them on a yet uncharted leadership path. And similarly, He left the splendor of heaven to reach down to us and meet us where we are before commissioning us onward. 

We need Jesus to wash our feet.

Our weary, sweaty feet.

Our wounded, bleeding feet.

Our weak and bruised feet.

Will you let Him? Or instead, like Peter, will you push back?

Sometimes we believe that all God is interested in is what we do for Him, our positions and progress, our roles and responsibilities. Yet in His interactions with leaders in the Gospels, Jesus consistently demonstrates that He is far more interested in people’s characters than in their gifts, titles, connections, and achievements. It is still true today. 

Perhaps we’re too ashamed—after all, we’re supposed to be leaders, influencers, the ones getting it right. 

How can we admit that our TV binging habits have taken us to some destructive places?

How do we admit that wounds from our past relationships and professional disappointments are infected with bitterness? 

How do we acknowledge that the work we do that we say is fueled by passion is fueled also by our fears and insecurities? 

To share life with Jesus, to live with faith-shaped purpose, is to invite Him into even the most painful realities in our lives. It’s certainly vulnerable, especially if we’ve prided ourselves on being the kinds of leaders who keep it all together. We cannot present or perform our way out of our own brokenness, no matter how hard we try. 

But Jesus doesn’t need us to keep it all together, to pretend life and loss haven’t happened to us. He’s the kind of leader who tends to His leaders—even laying down His life so that they might live.

In what parts of your life do you need to let down your guard before God and allow Jesus to “wash your feet”?