I've seen enough war films to know that a good soldier is supposed to take care of his feet -- but I don't know if I ever really understood the reasons for this, at least not on a personal level, until this week as I've been struggling to recover from a foot injury that I suffered this past weekend.

It was a silly injury really -- just a three-centimeter cut along the outside and slightly underneath portion of the big toe on my right foot. It didn't really even hurt all that much at the time that it happened (climbing out of a lake after a baptism on Easter Sunday). Even though it's been healing over the last several days, it's continued to bother me in increasingly significant ways. First it was just minor discomfort while walking. But after a couple of days I started to notice more problems with my foot -- joint and muscle pain from the ways that I subconsciously adjusted my foot position to protect my big toe. And now today, I've started to feel more pain in my knee -- again, presumably from over-compensation for my foot problems and toe problems. And honestly, it doesn't take too much imagination to see how these lower leg problems could eventually lead to hip problems, back problems, neck problems, and other kinds of physical problems too!

The feet play an extremely important -- you could say "foundational" -- role in the human body. As go the feet, so go the soldier.

So this all got me to wondering: What might be the spiritual equivalent of taking care of one's feet? I imagine that different people might suggest different answers: perhaps weekly worship with a fellowship of other believers... Or reading the Bible... Or prayer... Or regularly observing Communion... I could see a case for any one of these exercises as a sort of base-line spiritual discipline, akin to a soldier taking care of his feet. But as I thought about it throughout the day today -- while hobbling around on my recovering toe, foot, and knee -- I started to consider more and more the importance of a humble heart and a basic admission of dependence on God. Basically, I'm talking about a readiness to "stay grounded" (if you'll forgive the pun) on the basic truth of who man is and who God is. You might even say that this comes down to a simple understanding of the core message of the Gospel. Possible biblical support for this idea could be found in Proverbs 1:7, Deuteronomy 8:3 (which is also quoted by Jesus in Matthew 4:4), and Ephesians 6:15 (which has the added benefit of actually being a verse about feet!). But I don't know. I freely admit that this idea is half-baked -- still I thought I would put it out there for consideration (and argumentation, if anyone wants to provide some input on this idea).

In any event, let me just close by reminding you to: Please, take care of your feet (both physical and spiritual).