Month: September 2013

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On and Off the Streets

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A 5:30 a.m. run on the inner city streets of Baltimore is a real accomplishment. But there is more to it. People running together – some with homes and some without – are also testing the connection that running helps eradicate homelessness and paves the way for personal change.

Back on My Feet (http://www.backonmyfeet.org/) turns traditional thinking on its head.  It isn’t about getting those experiencing homelessness “off the streets”; it is about joining them “on the streets”.

Check out the website for this organization’s storybook beginning, its statistically impressive contribution to individual lives, and its expansion to eleven cities in the USA. 

 

(Adapted from: “Back on My Feet  fights homelessness with running”. The News Hole. September 11, 2013. By Jenna McLaughlin.)

 

http://blogs.citypaper.com/index.php/2013/09/back-on-my-feet-fights-homelessness-with-running/

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A Gallery of God’s Feet

Pretend that you have ample financial resources and want to commission a portrait of God’s feet…only His feet in the setting, no other body part.

(Alternatively, commission a child you know who can draw un-self-consciously. Picture ends up on the fridge, kind of thing.) 

 

  1. Prepare to choose one of the following verses from which to model the picture. 

 Exodus 24:9-10 (NLT)

Then Moses, Aaron, Nadab, Abihu, and the seventy elders of Israel climbed up the mountain. There they saw the God of Israel. Under his feet there seemed to be a surface of brilliant blue lapis lazuli, as clear as the sky itself.

Psalm 18:9 (NLT)

He opened the heavens and came down; dark storm clouds were beneath his feet.

Nahum 1:3 (NKJV)

The Lord is slow to anger and great in power, and will not at all acquit the wicked. The Lord has His way in the whirlwind and in the storm, and the clouds are the dust of His feet.

Revelation 1:13, 15 (NIV1984)

And among the lampstands was someone “like a son of man,” dressed in a robe reaching down to his feet and with a golden sash around his chest. His feet were like bronze glowing in a furnace, and his voice was like the sound of rushing waters.

 

2. Pause at each verse to get a glimpse of God’s presence. Pay particular attention to His feet in the different scenes. 

3. Get ready to take consultation notes on:

  •  Setting
  •  Actions
  •  Parts that are difficult to imagine or depict

 4. Read the verses again, noting details from each verse.  For example, Psalm 18:

  • Setting – heavens open, dark storm clouds
  • Actions – descending from above but feet remaining on the clouds
  • Parts that are difficult to imagine or depict – is the opening in heaven a door? 

5.  Visualize each verse. What does each one tell you about His feet? 

6.  Ask the Holy Spirit to put you in each verse and potential picture.  Which one draws you closer to God’s feet?

7.  Then, step outside that picture and imagine looking at the picture with Jesus.  What is He saying to you?

 

Which verse did you choose? 

                   Using your notes, let the great commission begin…

 

© 2013 by Teresa Sandhu. All rights reserved

Adapted from:

Sandhu, T.J. (2013). Walking with God: Praying through footwork metaphors in scripture. Unpublished manuscript.

 

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Having an Eye for Feet

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1)  Drawing human feet is difficult.  Their complex anatomy and rarely ceasing movement make them difficult to capture on paper.  Even if there are only two of them. 

http://www.google.ca/imgres?sa=X&biw=1366&bih=566&tbm=isch&tbnid=gXF0wWQ1Z633KM:&imgrefurl=http://everydayadrawing.com/category/dailydrawing/theory/&docid=cb2DwewauFCnNM&imgurl=http://everydayadrawing.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/how-to-draw-feet.jpg&w=800&h=600&ei=pz9EUtbiKZCoqQHhmoDYDw&zoom=1&iact=rc&dur=484&page=1&tbnh=150&tbnw=205&start=0&ndsp=28&ved=1t:429,r:10,s:0,i:109&tx=104&ty=67

1)  So what if the creature is four footed? Drawing animal feet must be twice the challenge.  Not for some, it would seem…

Paleolithic people living more than 10,000 years ago had a better artistic eye than modern painters and sculptures — at least when it came to watching how horses and other four-legged animals move.

A new analysis of 1,000 pieces of prehistoric and modern artwork finds that “cavemen,” or people living during the upper Paleolithic period between 10,000 and 50,000 years ago, were more accurate in their depictions of four-legged animals walking than artists are today. While modern artists portray these animals walking incorrectly 57.9 percent of the time, prehistoric cave painters only made mistakes 46.2 percent of the time. (Stephanie Pappas, Live Science Senior Writer, NBC News)

http://www.nbcnews.com/id/50093113/ns/technology_and_science-science/t/cavemen-trump-modern-artists-drawing-animals/

 

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Feet that Speak

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Excerpt from “How Beautiful the Feet”  By Dr. Maxine Hancock

From: The Regent World  (Summer 2009. Vol. 21, No.2) 

I run up the central stairs of Regent College and catch my breath at an art installation I pass on my way to my second-floor office –Vancouver sculptor David Robinson’s chalk-white piece: a preacher, pathetically thin and apparently naked, boxed in by a pulpit which is, as it turns out, also a cross. The piece is titled, “Speak.” but I give it my own title as I pass: “So, you want to be a preacher.”

What particularly draws my eyes are the long, narrow feet dangling below the pulpit (Size 12, triple A, I think), feet that are painfully, vulnerably bare. Every vein is distinct, the feet bony and chalky. Normally, the speaker’s feet would be encased in well-polished leather, and perhaps draped by swishing robes: here, they speak of mortality and fragility. I find these feet throat-catchingly beautiful. In the pathos of these bare feet, the artist insists that we remember the preacher’s humanity. 

http://www.artway.eu/content.php?id=721&lang=en&action=show

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A Standing Foot

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Travelling Family  By Amos Supuni

The travelling public in Atlanta, Georgia passes this artwork installation as they walk to and from gates. On this gigantic foot statue, the toes represent the faces of family members. The raw chiseled stone of the foot contrasts with the highly polished toes.

http://www.atlanta-airport.com/passenger/art%20program/frmPassengerInformation_ArtProgram_Zimbabwe_Details.aspx

 

A Traveller’s Prayer: 

O LORD, you have examined my heart and know everything about me.

You know when I sit down or stand up. You know my thoughts even when I’m far away.

You see me when I travel and when I rest at home. You know everything I do.

You know what I am going to say even before I say it, LORD.

You go before me and follow me. You place your hand of blessing on my head.

(Psalm 139:1–5 NLT)

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Try this pair on: ‘Feet as Canvas’ and ‘Canvas Shoes’

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1) Sienna Reid’s depiction of the loaded words thrown at the feet of Amanda Knox during her trial for murder in Italy

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/art-and-architecture/amanda-knox-multimedia-projects-highlight-the-power-of-words/article14341689/

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2)   TOMS canvas shoes

http://www.google.ca/search?q=canvas+shoes+toms&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=CKM4Uu-IJcLqrQHHpICQDA&ved=0CFEQsAQ&biw=1366&bih=566&dpr=1

 

 

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Calling out to God to Rescue your Feet

Praying from the MESSAGE version of The Book of Psalms: 

God! God! I am running to you for dear life; the chase is wild. If they catch me, I’m finished (7:1, 2). God! Please hurry to my rescue! God, come quickly to my side (70:1). God, give grace, get me up on my feet (41:10). I run for dear life to God, I’ll never live to regret it. Do what you do so well: get me out of this mess and up on my feet (71:1, 2). Make a show of how much you love me so the bullies who hate me will stand there slack-jawed, as you, God, gently and powerfully put me back on my feet (86:17). I’m feeling terrible—I couldn’t feel worse! Get me on my feet again. You promised, remember (119:25)?

I waited and waited and waited for you. At last you looked; finally you listened. You lifted me out of the ditch, pulled me from deep mud. You stood me up on a solid rock to make sure I wouldn’t slip (40:1, 2)?

When I run to you God, you save me (37:40). You did everything you promised, and I’m thanking you with all my heart. You pulled me from the brink of death, my feet from the cliff-edge of doom. Now I stroll at leisure with you in the sunlit fields of life (56:12, 13).

I bless you, God! I give you a thunderous welcome! Didn’t you set me on the road to life? Didn’t you keep me out of the ditch (66:8, 9)? Yes, because You are my refuge, You the High God my very own home, evil can’t get close to me; harm can’t get through the door. You ordered your angels to guard me wherever I go. If I stumble, they’ll catch me; their job is to keep me from falling (91:9–12).

I said to myself, “Relax and rest. God has showered you with blessings. Soul, you’ve been rescued from death; Eye, you’ve been rescued from tears; and you, Foot, were kept from stumbling” (116:7, 8).

God, you make everything come out right; you put victims like me back on my feet (103:6). Blessed be you Lord – day after day you carry me along (68:19). Thank you for your love, thank you for your faithfulness; most holy is your name, most holy is your Word. The moment I called out, you stepped in; you made my life large with strength (138:2, 3). Really! There’s no such thing as self-rescue, pulling yourself up by your bootstraps (49:7).

 

Sandhu, T.J. (2013). Walking with God: Praying through footwork metaphors in scripture. Unpublished manuscript.

 

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Walking the Tightrope with Faith in God

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Sometimes the tightrope is literal:

Balancing act: Nik Wallenda in training for his Grand Canyon walk (Photo: Jason Elias)

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/10132372/Nik-Wallenda-The-man-crossing-the-Grand-Canyon-on-a-tightrope.html

Wallenda is religious… His miked-up prayers were heard by millions of viewers as he inched his way along the wire. But he denies he is “testing” God with his stunts. “To test God would be to never train, never practise, and then to walk across the Grand Canyon; or to jump off a building, or throw myself in front of a truck,” he says. “My faith simply means that I have confidence in the fact that if I die, I know where I’m going.”

 

Sometimes the tightrope is figurative:

There is a godly tightrope of dynamic tension between the reality of subjective experience and biblical doctrine.  Let us strive to maintain our balance!  There is a tension – it is supposed to be there!

Goll, Jim W. The Seer: The Prophetic Power of Visions, Dreams, and Open Heavens. Shippensburg, PA: Destiny Image, 2004. p. 82-83.

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Losing Your Footing

I remember the last time I tripped and fell. It left me bruised and scraped. A good conversation distracted me on a rocky desert trail; I wasn’t looking straight ahead. I should have been more attentive to the path and to my feet. Can you remember your last stumble? What got in your way? How did you get back up on your feet?

Some wrong moves can have big spiritual consequences. The one time Adam and Eve turned away from God left a fallen legacy for all generations to come. Their weakness is mine and yours as well. The “Fall” is a baseline metaphor for sin. You can trace all faulty footwork to that first wrong move.

Look up “fall” in the dictionary and see how much vocabulary resounds with the fallout from that original sin. Samples from the Oxford Reference Dictionary:

  • “Fall away” means to desert or vanish.
  • “Fall back” means to retreat.
  • “Fall flat” means to fail.
  •  A “fall guy” is an easy victim or scapegoat.

The unplanned physical moves of stumbling, tripping, and falling are a picture of the human spiritual condition after that first momentous “fall.” Thankfully, God doesn’t leave you in this predicament. He reverses the effects of the “fall” with His own resurrection. He gives you His Spirit so you can walk with your eyes on Him.

Quiet your inner spirit as you contemplate the following two Bible verses. Ask God for a revelation of His goodness, mercy, and sovereignty over your footwork. He is in control; His plan is a path forward and He is on it with you.

“The LORD directs the steps of the godly. He delights in every detail of their lives. Though they stumble, they will never fall, for the LORD holds them by the hand”.  Psalm 37:23, 24 (NLT)

“I have taught you the way of wisdom; I have led you in right paths. When you walk, your steps will not be hindered, and when you run you will not stumble”.  Proverbs 4:11, 12 (NKJV)

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Excerpt from:

Sandhu, Teresa (2013). Walking with God: Praying through footwork metaphors in scripture. Unpublished manuscript.

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Walking not by sight: try on this pair

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1)  The compound fractures of blindness and a foot disease

From:  The Mossy Foot News Blog “Sight is Coming to Blind Eyes” (Sept 16, 2013)

 

http://ca.mg206.mail.yahoo.com/neo/launch?.partner=rogers-acs&.rand=75jna3tv4snhb

“The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the young goat, the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them.” Isaiah 11:6  (emphasis, mine)

 

In Isaiah, this is a beautiful prophetic image. In Ethiopia, however, the concept of being led by a little child has a dark and tragic meaning rather than a glorious one. Because of poverty and lack of medical care, blindness is common in the rural villages. You will often see an adult being led from place to place by a young child.

The consequence of blindness for the adult is of course devastating for there is little work available for someone without eyesight. But the consequences for the child can also be drastic, eliminating any opportunity to attend school or enjoy free time with other children.

Blindness for Zenebech, one Ethiopian widow with mossy foot disease, forced her to giving her youngest child away since she could not care for him.

How then will she walk?

[For more information on ‘mossy foot’ also called ‘podoconiosis’ check: http://www.podo.org/]

 

2)  A walking testimony of ingenuity and sensibility

 From: Jason’s Profile “Lab Intern Sherene Ng, awarded 54K Fellowship” (May 14th, 2013)  

http://edgelab.ryerson.ca/2013/05/14/lab-intern-sherene-ng-awarded-54k-fellowship/

 Sherene Ng, a Ryerson University graduate in Toronto and a participant in their SheEO program http://sheeo.ca/sheeos/sherene-ng/ received a large fellowship to kick start a business commercializing her prototype of a shoe for people with low vision.

The device is a wearable shoe sensor that vibrates to alert users when objects are in their walking path. The goal is to minimize tripping hazards and falls for people who may not be able to detect the objects on their own.

If the shoe fits, wire it and wear it in good health.