Nothing says, “I love you,” like opening up some micro-spikes your husband ordered you for an upcoming trip… right?! A couple of weeks ago, Brandon and I scheduled a quick getaway to the mountains of Utah (almost positive this is what Heaven will look like), and we made our way to some hikes I had been longing to take with him for years. It was epic. Most of the terrain was totally manageable with hiking shoes, but for the portion that required a little extra, turns out I was… totally fine. Because of the spikes. As in, you would never have known I was traversing across ice. You know why? Because my feet were fitted with readiness.
Maybe you’re like me, and the whole “armor of God” illustration has some gaps where my brain is like, “wait… how does that translate exactly?!” And the “feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace,” is one of them. I get readiness, and peace, and the gospel… separately at least. But why feet?
Enter micro-spikes.
If you can imagine the “unready” version of me hiking through hills and ice-covered trails, you might see a lot of slipping. Probably not with the grace of a figure-skater. More like a newly walking toddler. There would be thuds and scrapes and maybe even some griping at the husband. Unreadiness of the parts of the body meant to stabilize threatens peace. Peace is lost upon wasted energies and damaged bodies; and peace would for sure be under threat of demise — not because I wasn’t warm enough, not because I didn’t have the rest of my body equipped for the trek… but because shoes matter.
You know what else matters? The gospel that brings peace. Our sin-soaked selves can come before the throne of a holy God and be met with peace singularly because of Jesus. Without him, there is no peace between us and God. Without him, we navigate life unequipped for the spectacular demands of storms, ice, and dangerous rocks. The King of Kings and Lord of Lords calls Jesus “The Prince of Peace.” The gospel establishes readiness that equips us to navigate treacherous terrain with a firm grip on peace.The whole gospel is wrapped around his rescue mission, the way he came for us, the gift of eternal access. And when we take hold of this truth, it is as if we wrapped up our feet with micro-spikes. We are ready to move, to respond to whatever tricky terrain is laid out before us. Resilient, firmly planted feet, energies salvaged for the journey. Stable and at peace.
You guys, Let’s trek forward with feet fitted with the readiness of the gospel of peace. Today, if that feels attractive, ask him for the peace that comes with surrender. Ask him to fit your feet with peace. Ask him to be the great stabilizer of your heart. Let’s be a people who fix our eyes on eternal things. Because an eternal perspective changes everything.