Articles

He Walked a Mile in My Shoes

By: Lorenzo Lowery

Just about any religion that you study pretty much operates on the same premise – how can I, as a man, reach God. Most people believe that there is an afterlife, and live their lives in hopes of pleasing a supreme being in order to be deemed worthy enough to gain entrance into heaven. Christianity however is quite unique among other religions in its premise. Unlike other religions where man attempts to reach god, in Christianity, God attempts to reach man.

Many read the Bible as a book of rules and regulations that are required to be met in order obtain eternal life. Although the Bible does have guidelines on how to live our lives, this is not the true foundational message of the Bible. The Bible is really about God’s attempt to reach out to man and reconcile him back to Himself. Much like a parent who sees their child beginning to hang with a bad group of kids, God has been attempting for millennia to get our attention and put us back on the right track. In the Old Testament we read about the behavioral guidelines, the rewards and the consequences that God implemented in an attempt to teach us how to live a life that honored Him. However, in the New Testament, the birth of Jesus marks a monumental shift in God’s strategy.

Rather than God telling us how to live, or man attempting to live in a manner pleasing to God, with the birth of Jesus, God Himself came down to earth to show us how to live. Hebrews 4:15 says, “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are – yet was without sin.” Since God, in the person of Jesus Christ, was 100% man, He felt joy, anger, frustration, hunger, sorrow and all of the physical and emotional traits that come with the trappings of being human. This now allows God (in Christianity) to relate to us in a special way. He can relate because God actually walked a mile in our shoes. I don’t have to wonder if my God cares, I can know He cares because He Himself has felt the same emotions that I have. This allows God to be more than just some cosmic ogre ruling over mankind – it allows Him to have a deep, personal relationship with us – one that is intimate and grows over time.

This relationship allows God to deal with us individually, like a good parent that knows how to deal with each child individually based on their temperament and personality. Because He is in relationship with us, He knows our strengths, weaknesses, frailties and pet peeves and deals with us accordingly. It is not a "one size fits all" religion where our worship must be structured and ordered in a specific way in order to be acceptable. When you talk to those that do believe and worship in this restrictive manner, even among Christians, unfortunately are never really sure if what they are doing is actually pleasing or acceptable to their god. They just follow the learned ritual because they have been conditioned to believe that it is the way they should worship. But I'm thankful that God shows and demonstrates His love to us in such a personal way, that it allows us to know when we are pleasing to Him