by Andy Wade
“Take off your shoes, for the place that you are standing is holy ground.” Those weren’t the words that I heard that day over twenty-five years ago. What I “heard”, or more accurately more sensed, was “take off your shoes and wander the grounds. Listen to me through your feet.” I was at a pastors’ retreat in Arizona that was being held at a Franciscan retreat center. It was the final day, and I decided to head out to wander the grounds one last time. Sauntering along trails, over grassy sections, and across scorching hot pavement led me to a new way of praying, of listening, of conversing with God.
Praying barefoot has become one of my favorite ways to pray. Most often I pray barefoot in the garden, or in a park, or along a sandy beach. These are pretty easy ways to begin. But over the past month I’ve been sensing the need to walk barefoot through the business area of my community. It took me a while to actually do it. It sounded like a great concept, but “what would the neighbors think”?
I don’t normally care about such things, but as I ventured onto the sidewalk with naked feet I really felt out of place. I was the only one walking around without protection. My first impulse was to dash back to security and put on shoes like everyone else. But I told myself I was going to do this. For some reason I needed to do this. So I ventured on.
Walking in sandals or shoes on sidewalks shields our feet from a sensory extravaganza. There’s a buffer between me and the nitty gritty of my neighborhood. Removing my shoes I begin to notice every crack, every pebble, every contour and temperature change. To be honest, I felt more self-conscious than prayerful at the start. And as I thought about that and asked God how to overcome that so I could enter into the moment, I realized how many wander the streets feeling out of place, naked and exposed. For some it’s because they live on the streets and know that their presence isn’t welcome. For others it might be social phobia or anxiety. For many just venturing out into public is a frightening experience.
Lord, who are the people I’ve walked by without noticing? Who are the people I’ve noticed and judged? What are their stories, their struggles and hurts? How can we create a neighborhood where all feel loved and accepted?
Wandering around a corner I noticed a friend hopping out of his car. Do I greet him? Seems like a silly question, but he hadn’t noticed me, and I was doing something weird. I called out his name and waved. He crossed the street toward me. “Have you quit wearing shoes?” he asked. I told him what I was up to, and we ended up in a conversation about faith, spirituality, and belonging. It was a choice. I prefer to pray alone, but God interrupted my prayer with a friend. This friend entered into my prayer in the form of a conversation, and together we met with God.
Lord, help me to remain open to those around me. Help me to recognize opportunities to join with others in the celebration of life even when it may, at first, seem like an interruption to my plans or my way of doing things. Thank you for the gift of holy interruptions.
Continuing my journey, I reflected on how walking barefoot through the community forced me to slow down and notice. You have to be careful where you step, and you can’t be in a hurry when your tender feet are exposed. “Hot! Hot! Hot!…” Ironic that while reflecting on this a metal utility cover appeared out of nowhere! Spying a patch of weeds growing up through the cracks in the sidewalk, I rushed to the coolness of these unwanted plants.
Lord, where are the oases in my community? Are there places of comfort and rest that are overlooked, or worse, thought of as intrusions on a well-maintained neighborhood? How can I be a place of comfort for those burned or neglected? How might I receive hospitality from those I would normally turn away from?
Settling into the walk I began to really feel the community. It wasn’t just the sights, sounds, and smells but also the touch. The smooth sidewalk surface was frequently disrupted by concrete squares with a pebbled texture. The cracks slanting through older parts of the sidewalk reminded me of how cracks can be a crumbling nuisance or a mark of character earned by living life fully.
Crackling beneath my foot a fall leaf disintegrates. Yeah, fall is fast approaching, the seasons are changing. I can see the seasons changing in the business community too. There are established businesses that have been here since before the 60s, when I arrived on the scene. There are brand new businesses that have just opened up. For such a small area there’s also a surprising diversity of cultures. This is my home.
Lord, the world around us seems to be constantly changing. Help us to embrace the change that builds community and confront change that divides, alienates, or seeks to put a shiny facade on a serious issue. Give us wisdom to see the neighborhood through your eyes and to pray with my mouth and with my actions, “Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”
Returning to where I began I sit down to reflect. I started my barefoot prayer through the neighborhood feeling out of place, self-conscious, and not too prayerful. But as I walked and listened and conversed with God and those God brought into my path, all that was replaced with a sense of peace, of belonging. Yes, my feet were filthy by the end. But that was just evidence that I had been present in my place.
We can live in a locale but be so shielded by our attitudes, habits, and comforts that we’re not really present. I know I often isolate myself from my larger neighborhood by working from home and not creating reasons to get out and about. What does it mean to really be present? What does it mean to really listen prayerfully in the place that you live? By shedding our shoes we can also shed some of my unseen assumptions about our community. Listening to God about our neighborhoods through our feet can help us to see and to pray differently.
- Have you ever prayed barefoot in your neighborhood?
- If so, how was it different than other forms of prayer?
- It not, would you consider it?
- Where else might you venture unshod?
(This post, first published in 2016) seemed such a wonderful compliment to yesterday’s post that I thought some would like to revisit it.)
by Christine Sine,
Did you know that walking barefoot benefits not only our balance and body alignment. It also increases muscle strength, and most surprising of all, it helps our brains develop.
The feet are the most nerve-rich parts of the human body, which means they contribute to the building of neurological pathways in the brain. Covering them in shoes, therefore, means we’re eliminating all kinds of opportunities for children’s brains to grow new neural connections. Read the entire article
Then there is mud play
“It’s not just playing, it’s risk taking, it’s problem solving, it’s hypothesising and if you stand back and … observe, you can see so much learning going on. (Read the entire article)
I was amazed at the responses that my posting these two articles on Facebook elicited.
Many of us remember with nostalgia a childhood spent barefoot, running through the grass and the agony of having to confine our feet to tight fitting shoes at the end of summer. We remember too the toughening up period that was our initiation into a new summer experience and the joy of finding our feet impervious once again to jagged rocks and uneven surfaces. We remember too those carefree days of playing in the mud, unafraid to get our clothes dirty. Running barefoot through the mud, allowing it to ooze between our toes and caress our feet is probably the best memory of all.
Both these practices anchor us in the earth from which we were created and for which we are responsible. Yet now we are afraid to go barefoot, and discourage kids from doing the same. We are afraid that our sensitive little feet will be hurt by a jagged stone. Or maybe we will tread on a sticker (bindi eye in Australia) or a piece of glass. Or we cold pick up a germ lurking in the bare earth. We are willing to give up delight to avoid the transitory pain of toughening up. In the process I think we lose so much of the joy and carefreeness that a barefoot life gives us. Ironically as the article above points out we are much more likely to get hurt or become ill through what we touch with our hands and most of us would never think of wearing gloves all our lives because of this.
Are We Afraid To Go Barefoot Through Life?
Are We Afraid to Go Barefoot Through Life?
As I thought about this today I couldn’t help but compare the experience of walking barefoot in the grass and the mud to our lives. We have allowed our fears and our worries to cover up our spiritual feet – those sensitive parts of our body that help us find balance and alignment, that strengthen our spiritual muscles and develop our brains.
One of our scriptures for Sunday included the story of Jesus sending out the 72 disciples ahead of him into every town and place he intended to go to and he tells them:
“I am sending you out armed with vulnerability, like lambs walking into a pack of wolves. Don’t bring a wallet. Don’t carry a backpack. I don’t even want you to wear sandals. Walk along barefoot, quietly, without stopping for small talk.” (Luke 10:3,4 The Voice).
Wow! BAREFOOT! ARMED WITH VULNERABILITY!
Walking more in the way that children walk not weighed down by the prejudices and misconceptions that bind us.
I wonder was Jesus trying to toughen up his disciples here, helping them find their balance and make them less sensitive to slights and hurts and jagged rocks underfoot. Was he trying to strengthen their muscles and develop new neurological pathways that would grow their brains and help them understand the new perspectives he was teaching them?
Then I wonder: Have we lost some of our spiritual strength and balance because we are afraid to go barefoot, armed only with vulnerability? Are we more prone to the spiritual equivalent of germs and jagged rocks and prickles as a result? Are we hypersensitive not so much to the toxic pain of what is wrong with our society but to the bumps and lumps that toughen us up to enjoy what is good and healthy spiritual living?
I wish I had thought of writing about the benefits of walking barefoot and the delight of this childhood joy before I wrote The Gift of Wonder. There is a carefreeness to barefoot living that we seem to have lost just as we have lost so many other aspects of childhood.
Introduce A Little Barefoot Living
Here is some advice about barefoot living that I think is helpful as we consider how to apply it to our spiritual lives: (adapted from this article)
- Start slow. You need to be patient and start with short 15- to 20-minute sessions of walking barefoot this allows your feet and ankles to adapt. The spiritual toughening up process needs to be eased into too as any child starting their summer vacation cold tell you. “for the joy that is set before you take time to endure the pain” It is well worth it!
- Ease up if you feel any new pain or discomfort. Because our muscles have lost their strength we are at increased risk of injury. “Without appropriate strength in the foot, you are at risk of having poor mechanics of walking, thereby increasing your risk for injury.” I think that many of us have lost the mechanics of good spiritual walking too because we have not strengthened our muscles. Maybe some of the fallout we see in our churches is because we have not taught followers of Jesus to strengthen their muscles so they can walk well without injury.
- Practice on safe surfaces. “Once you’ve mastered the indoors, try walking on outside surfaces that are less dangerous, such as turf, rubber tracks, sandy beaches, and grass.” Once we have mastered barefoot living inside at home we could try it out in places we feel spiritually safe like discipleship groups before we take it outside into the neighbourhood.
- Experiment with balance exercises. “Start with simple balance exercises like standing on one foot or pressing yourself up onto your toes and lowering down slowly.” To me this speaks of the need to balance contemplation and action. Learning to rest the moment without stress and anxiety then committing ourselves to active involvement in God’s world is a good way to practice this.
- Try an activity that requires you to be barefoot. “Take advantage of activities that are already performed barefoot, like yoga, Pilates, or martial arts”. Now that one is easy for me – exercise the muscles of joy and delight that God has given you. Go for a barefoot awe and wonder walk, swim in the waves or play in a mud puddle. The delight of these types of practices strengthens us for a life of joy and delight in which the pressures of jagged rocks don’t bother us.
- Examine your feet for injury.”Every day examine the bottom of your feet for injury.” A good exercise to end your day with during this “toughening up period of barefoot living” is to ask yourself “What has caused me discomfort” before you go to bed. Identifying the sensitivities that cause pain allows God to bring healing to these areas so that you are really able to walk barefoot and carefree.
So get out there and enjoy a bit of barefoot living this week!
By Lilly Lewin
What does God’s love look like? When you think of God’s love, what comes to mind?
Maybe Sunsets, a bank of beautiful clouds, the ocean, children laughing, your best friend’s smile, your family, or maybe your puppy or cat welcoming you home? What do you think of when you think of the Love of God? What are the feelings and emotions that arise? Have you ever taken the time to consider what God’s love really looks like to you personally?
Sunsets represent God’s love to me! I am a visual learner so I love taking pictures with my phone. I love capturing the beauty of nature! Nature always reminds me of God’s love and faithfulness. 
What are the visual reminders that God loves you? What does God’s love look like to you?
Take some time this weekend to consider what God’s love looks like. You can get your whole family involved. You can use your phones to capture photos of what God’s love looks like, or you can draw pictures, or create a collage of pictures that represent God’s love to you. Take time to share them with your roommate, your friends, or family. You might even text them to a friend as reminder of how much God loves them. 
I am curating a Sacred Space prayer room next week in Kansas City and one of the prayer stations involves a Viso Divina reflection on photos of “What God’s Love looks like….” Participants will sit down and watch a slide show of various photos of what God’s Love Looks Like and consider God’s great love for each of them. I am still looking for images for the slide show so if you’d like to play along I’d love you to send me a pic to freerangeworship@gmail.com and you can tag it on instagram too! #GodslovelookslikeYouth2019
Any age can play! Ask your friends, kids, parents, grandparents! I’d love to see what God’s love looks like to you! Just know that as the curator, I will have the final decision on what works for our theme & audience.
Even if you don’t send in a selection, for your own spritual practice, pause, breathe and absorb God’s great love for you and spend some time in wonder of all the amazing ways God’s love is exhibited in your world! 
©lillylewin and freerangeworship.com The photos above all represent God’s love to me. the last photo is of my husband and me at Goat Rock on the Sonoma Coast in California. It was taken by my good friend DG Hollums.
by Christine Sine
So Christ has truly set us free. Now make sure that you stay free, and don’t get tied up again in slavery to the law.
For you have been called to live in freedom, my brothers and sisters. But don’t use your freedom to satisfy your sinful nature. Instead, use your freedom to serve one another in love. For the whole law can be summed up in this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”But if you are always biting and devouring one another, watch out! Beware of destroying one another. Galatians 5:1, 13-15 NLT
The prayer above is one that I like to repost each year as I struggle with what it means to be free and the lack of freedom that so many in our society experience.
What Does It Mean to Be Free?
What does it mean to be free? Today is Independence Day in the U.S. when Americans celebrate their “freedom”. To be honest it is a celebration I struggle with because I don’t believe God calls us to be independent but rather interdependent. I also realize that our cultural perspectives shape our views of freedom but what I do believe is that Independence Day is a great time to reflect on our freedoms, what we appreciate and how we can extend those freedoms to others.
To Americans the concept of freedom focuses on the freedom of individual choice, which can be as trivial as the right to choose whether I want my eggs sunny side up or over easy, or as serious as the right to bear arms. What I struggle with is that there seems to be little recognition of the often dire consequences our individual choices can have for the society or for the world in which we live.
To Australians freedom revolves around the freedom of society and the recognition that our decisions all have consequences not just for us as individuals but for all of our society and our world. Consequently most Australians are willing to give up the right to bear arms for the good of a safe society in which we don’t have to worry about mass gun violence and killings. In the Australian political system voting is compulsory because of the belief that with the freedom of citizenship comes the responsibility of participation in the process that provides our freedom.
Unfortunately neither country does very well when it comes to granting freedom to all. We like to be exclusive – no freedom to immigrants, to those of other sexual orientation, those with disabilities, those of other races or religions. Whether we think of freedom as individual or societal we all like to limit who we give freedom to.
All of this leads me to my most important question about freedom “What does freedom look like in the kingdom of God?” Obviously there is a element of individual freedom – all of us need to take on the individual responsibility to kneel at the foot of the Cross, repent and reach out for the salvation of Christ. However our entry into the family of God faces us with serious consequences for how we act in society.
Our freedom as Christians means that we no longer focus on our own needs but rather “consider the needs of others as more important than our own” (Philippians 2) It means that we live by the law of love – what James calls “the royal law” (James 2:8). In the quote above, Paul sums this up very well “Do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature; rather serve one another humbly in love. For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: Love your neighbour as yourself.”
What is Your Response?
What comes to mind when you think about freedom? Take out your journal and piece of paper and divide it into 2 columns. On one side write the words that come to mind when you think of freedom. In the other column write down the negative consequences of your personal freedoms for others, for the earth and even for your life. Listen to the video below and reflect on the true meaning of freedom.
Sit quietly for a few minutes reflecting on your lists and the video you have listened to. Allow God to speak to you. Are there changes you need to make to your original lists based on your reflections? Are there places in which God calls you to repent of your “independence”? Are there ways in which God may ask you to give up your personal freedoms for the common good?
by Andy Wade
A few years ago Andy Wade redesigned his garden and I am in awe of what he has created. It all began with the questions “What If I designed my garden with God and neighbor in mind?” I often think of this as I work in my own garden. How can I invite God into my space? How can I make it a place of welcome for friends and neighbours? I hope that you are as inspired by what he has done as I am.
Are you are inspired and are interested in Garden Spirituality? Check out my book, To Garden with God, or plan to have Andy or I hold our Spirituality of Gardening workshop in your location.
A Reading Life Differently post by Barbie Perks —
I’ve been so excited to be writing these entries (See Reading Life Differently Part One, Two & Three), I’m hoping that you who read them are also feeling that sense of excitement for me! Although many miles/kilometres separate us, we can share in the same heartbeat of the Holy Spirit working in our lives. If God chooses to use my words and experiences to touch and encourage someone, what a blessing that is!
Coming to a new country meant that I had to take farewell of other things I had been involved in and grown attached to. One of those was a Precept Bible Study I had run for a good number of years. I was unable to find a trained Leader to take it over, and none of the group were willing to step up and share the leadership role. Some have moved on to other groups, some are dealing with their own difficult circumstances at this point in life. Whatever it is, the season for this particular group of ladies has come to an end.
The second group I ran, however, has risen to the challenge of leadership and decided to share and rotate leadership of the group. They have stepped out of their comfort zones, and into a period of real growth as they study and wrestle with the Word to prepare the lessons each week. They will enter a new period of dependence on God for insight and wisdom, and will discover wonderful truths about leadership for themselves.
Seasons come and go, don’t they? We are so used to the natural seasons of spring, summer, autumn and winter that we don’t really take much notice of them, beyond complaining about the heat or the cold. This Godspacelight website is pretty much the exception to the rule – your writers delight in season changes and I love it.
People keep asking me what I am going to do with my time, even those I have just met. I’m happy to say I am enjoying this time of quiet and reflection, waiting on God to lead me.
Ecclesiastes 3 1-8 is such a beautiful reminder that there is a time and a season for every activity under the heavens. A season for every activity. A list of activities follows, and as I read each one, I see that of course, each is a season that comes and goes as the years go by. Sometimes, seasons overlap and we have to walk or wade through those with the help of good friends and loving family.
I have been through the season of uprooting and moving (v2b), the season of deciding what to keep and what to throw away (v6b) – and oh, was that not a difficult couple of weeks! 25 years of living in the same home and raising children leaves one with a lot souvenirs to sort through. My oldest son repeatedly said that he was so thankful I was doing the work now and not leaving it to him to do one day.
Presently we are also in the season of anticipating the birth of a second grandchild and the upheaval that will bring as the family settles and expands. Those early months are never easy, but we do know that it is a season and it will pass. At the same time, we have friends who have lost either a spouse, or a son, or have had bad news about cancer recurring. The times for mourning and weeping overlap with the times for celebration and laughing. And God gives us the grace to be fully present with each person in these seasons. I wonder, is that a part of the image of God that we are all created in? God is fully present within us in the person of the Holy Spirit, through each of the seasons we enter and exit. I find that a very comforting truth to hold on to.
Which season do you find yourself in today? If it’s a difficult or challenging season, can you look forward to when it will end? Can you find the beauty in this season (V11) and celebrate it?
I remembered this song which basically helps us to memorise these verses. It’s not a Christian song, but the repeated phrase Turn Turn Turn could be a reminder to repent and change the way we think about our seasons….. this might be worth thinking further on. What do you think?
by Christine Sine
An old story tells of a Godly monk who asked his students: “How do you know when the darkness is dispelled and the dawn has come?” Is it when yo can tell the difference between a dog and a goat?” they asked. “No” said the wise old man, “we know the dawn has come when we can see in the countenance of another the face of Christ.
In case you haven’t noticed I love gardens and I love nature. I particularly love to watch the sun rise over the mountains and the play of light across the landscape and on the dew drops on flowers and leaves. Not surprisingly, it is easy for me to interpret the need to see life differently as a call to retreat into the natural world. Even my prayers can focus on nature and my desire to praise the God of all creation. Yet like most of us, I live in a city. My life is ruled by technology and the light of screens.
I am a technophile. I cannot imagine a world without technology, or cars, or electric light. Nature is a great place to retreat into for an hour, a day or even a week, but it is not the place want to live most of my days. And though I dream of those far away tree covered slopes and tranquil rivers, I would soon hanker after the city and the conveniences of technology again.
Technology has transformed our world, our cultures and our language. It has also transformed our faith but how much has it transformed how and what we pray for?
How do I read life differently in this environment? Perhaps as the wise monk suggested to his students even in the midst of technology I need to look for the light of Christ reflected in the faces of those around me. I need to look for it in the images I see on my screen of violence and abuse and injustice…. and I need to incorporate those sights in my prayers and my spiritual practices.
I am not talking about using the latest Bible app or online devotional here. I am talking about a prayer life that is fully integrated with the world of technology in which most of us find ourselves.
Where Do We See The Light?
What if we read life through the lens of technology? Does it distract us from prayer or have we learned how to incorporate it in our prayers? Is it part of what we expect God to anoint and prosper or is it a disconnected, unrelated part of life? Where do we see the light of Christ and what if we crafted prayers that reflect that?
Where do we see the light of Christ in our use of technology? Does it shine in the images we see on our phones and computer screens? Do they flicker past too quickly for us to notice? Does it shine in the stories we read of violence and abuse or are we sated with a voyeurism that brings darkness rather than light? Does it shine in our addiction to too much social media and email?
I think that these are the type of questions we need to be asking.
So let’s take a moment to reflect.
Where do you see Jesus in the face of those you encounter – on facebook and instagram, snapchat and twitter? Where do you see him in the stories of mass shootings, domestic violence and abuse? Or in the atrocities done to children in detention camps and the injustices done to their parents at the border? Are you addicted to technology because of the sense of significance it gives you and your values?
Technology both connects and disconnects us. It helps us to both love and hate, to proclaim our rightness and everybody else’s wrongness; to call down fire to consume those who don’t think like us while expecting a double portion of God’s light and life and love for those who agree with us.
To read life differently, we need to listen to all the technology in our lives and discern where the light of Christ shines through.
So let’s get started.
How much time do you spend in front of a screen at home and at work? How often do you access social media and email?
Is it easy for you to handle these or does it make you stressed out and drained?
How much violence do you watch? Do you find yourself ratcheting up your consumption and seeking more stimulation than you used to?
Does this make you relaxed or energized, peaceful or overstimulated?
How does your screen time impact your prayer life and scripture study? What about your service to others and concern for creation and your neighborhood?
When you go to bed at night do you feel enriched and at peace with yourself and with God? How do you express this?
Scripture tells us that the fruit of the Spirit are love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control (Galatians 5:22) Do the millions of pixels of light dancing across your screens and illuminating your face enlighten your soul or dim your spirit?
O God I thank you for technology,
Making connections to family and friends around the world.
I thank you for FaceTime that allows me to see
Expressions on faces of those I care for.
I thank you for Instagram and Facebook
That keep me informed of those to pray for,.
For those to celebrate and those to weep with.
I thank you for Google that opens up the world to me,
Unveiling the latest challenges that grip our world –
Migrants at the border,
Persecution in China,
Environmental crises across the globe.
O God I thank you for technology,
May it enlighten and strengthen me,
And not overwhelm me with its onslaught.
Bless me with its joys.
Protect me from its disruptions.
Bless me with its goodness.
Protect me from its corruptions.
Bless me with its guidance.
Protect me from its addictions.
In its screen let me see your face.
In its light let me see your light.
In its life let me see your life.
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