JCK-at-large SITE

As the viral year 2021 came to a close, I found myself aching and wracked-up for no obvious reason.  Knees, hips, hamstrings, achilles, lower back — everything hurt.  I tried exercises and physio, back to the floor with knees up, rolling a Swiss Ball up the wall — nothing helped.  It got so bad that my early morning shuffle around the neighbourhood had to be aborted — and I could barely walk home!  And this during the coronavirus season, when getting out and about was the great essential!

But then, hark, a voice in the night.  It was around Christmas time, and I’m pretty sure it was one of those ‘Ghosts of Christmas Past.’  He whispered, “It’s the shoes, Ebenezer!” I rose up with a radical thought: why not try shelving the new Zehas and dig out the old Saucony Triumphs just to see?

For sure, this was something I had not thought of.  I had laid down so much money for “the best shoes on the road” a few months ago — how could it possibly be? These state-of-the-art imports doing me damage?  I traced the pain lane in my mind.  When did everything start hurting?  Following the trail as best I could over several weeks, I ended up at the door of the Running Room with a “Sale” sign in the window.  Maybe the pain and the new shoes were related after all!

There was only one way to test my Ebenezer theory.  I dusted off my five-year-old  Triumphs, which lay upside-down on the bottom shelf by the back door, covered in a fine layer of red dust, and I took them out in the dark: one little early morning loop around the neighbourhood, hobbled as I was.  It was magic!  I came home with the sunrise feeling like a new day had truly dawned!  My whole body was saying, “Ahh….”

So next day, I took the experiment a little further.  I biked out to the golf course before opening, took the slow lane around holes six through eight in my Triumphs, then back around holes three and four for thirty-five minutes in all.  No pain!  Just wet toes. This was becoming my own “Christmas story!” The transformation of decrepit Ebenezer!  His whole problem was in the shoes!  He had to get back to the Triumphs!

I was very grateful for that “ghost of Christmas past.”  Imagine whispering the cure to all my woes with a midnight visitation!  It brought to mind C. S. Lewis’ famous line in The Problem of Pain: “God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our consciences, but shouts in our pains.”  I thought I might add that, sovereign as He is, He can also whisper in our pains! Mercy, without that soft voice in the dark, I might have spent forever looking for relief in all the wrong places.  Down on the floor, hanging from doorframes, applying this and that lineament, trying to unlock whatever had seized up — when all the while, the problem was “in the shoes, Ebenezer!”

As I thought about it, that sounded like an all too human propensity: we look for pain-relief in all the wrong places. We deal with symptoms rather than causes.  We massage and adjust, when we should be checking our footwear.  We tinker with the superstructure — mind you, I hadn’t quite thought of this body in those terms before! — when the real issues are foundational. Maybe its not about the upper body after all, but how we pound the pavement! Why don’t we ask foundational footwear questions more often? “Am I properly balanced?” “Am I moving at the right pace?” Maybe even, most importantly, “Am I on the right path?”

I looked for confirmation from Google, our ultimate source of authority on such matters. “Can the wrong shoes hurt you?”  Indeed they can, it said.  And not just high heels!  It’s more than just the right fit that counts with shoes: it’s also about what they can do to your ‘gait.’ 

“Wearing the wrong kind of shoes can place strain on your knees and your hips. It might not sound like a big deal, but it is. Your knees and hips are the largest joints in your body and they’re responsible for supporting your weight. That’s why it’s so important to wear the right kind of shoes.”

More recent research confirmed this: “In fact, new studies show that your running shoes are linked more than ever to the way you run. This means that your shoes may actually be changing the way you run, contributing to your pain from running as well as raising your risk of injury.”

Then the clincher: “A proper pair of shoes ensures proper foot health with the improved movement of the body. The wrong pair of shoes could affect how you move. You won’t easily notice it but when you wear the wrong pair of shoes, your body will adjust to the shoes and your gait may change. Adjusting your gait to suit the shoe can cause problems to your back and hips. This is because the body is trying to compensate for the discomfort caused by the shoes.”

In short, my shoes led me to a rather firm conviction for the year 2022, birthed in pain: maybe the pain is all about your shoes.  So I launched the new year with a resolve to be more mindful of footwear. “Take the shoes off your feet for this is holy ground,” says the great ‘I Am’ to Moses(Ex 3).  May the new year find you unshod more often, I resolved, in that awesome presence! May the flaming bush of divine intervention blaze before your eyes!  May you be like Joshua, bowing barefoot before “the Commander of the Lord’s armies,” sword drawn in his hand! (Jsh 5). For these great leaders, taking off shoes meant disclaiming ownership. Turning over life and plans. What better new year’s resolution than that?

Then I resolved to remember our new shoes of sonship as well: “Kill the fatted calf! Bring shoes, ring and robe! For this my son was dead and is alive again!” (Lk15). What a fabulous homecoming the father gives the weather-beaten prodigal! Putting on new shoes was this wayward boy’s new life! The bare feet of the slave were feeling the perfect fit of his new shoes! Or were they his old shoes? I suspect that the father reserved a trusted pair of Triumphs for the son’s great homecoming!

Now nicely into a new year, I find myself humming an old campfire tune as I do my early morning excursions around the neighbourhood:  

“You got shoes, I got shoes, all God’s children got shoes….  When I get to heaven gonna put on my shoes, gonna walk all over God’s heaven…”

I have a feeling those shoes are going to be Triumphs!