Washing Dirty Feet

So, during supper, fully aware that the Father had put everything into his power and that he had come from God and was returning to God, he rose from supper and took off his outer garments.He took a towel and tied it around his waist. Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples' feet and dry them with the towel around his waist.

I'll start off with a confession right off the bat: my feet are almost always dirty here. It's not that I don't shower, because I do. But I usually wear Chaco sandals around, and it's dry season so everything is dusty. Inevitably, within a few hours of my shower, my feet are covered in dust from walking around Cedro Galan or La Chureca. It's actually slightly absurd, and I've never had dirty feet as frequently as I do nowadays. Every shower, I have to vigorously scrub my feet, sometimes multiple times, to get them clean again.

Maybe that was more than you ever wanted to know about my feet and their level of dirtiness. If so, I apologize - but I've spent more time thinking about my dirty feet lately than I ever thought I would. While at Adoration near the beginning of Lent, I was staring at my (dirty) feet while praying and got to thinking about Jesus and his foot-washing at the Last Supper. It suddenly had a lot more significance to me than it ever had with my clean feet in years past. As I sat there praying with my dirty feet, I realized that in order to truly understand how to wash others' feet, I had to first be around people with dirty feet.

A rule of our child sponsorship program in La Chureca is that the kids have to wear shoes or sandals every time they leave their house. It's a frequently broken rule, even though we provide the sandals for the kiddos. Many time, people walk around La Chureca without anything on their feet. Their feet are literally in the trash and the dirt. They have dirty feet. It's also not uncommon to see people in Cedro who just aren't wearing any shoes as they go about their daily lives. Many play soccer or walk around barefoot. They have dirty feet.

Here's the thing though - in order to be around these dirty feet, I have to be willing to get my own feet dirty. I can't sit in my clean or safe places, like offices or personal cars or my own house, and expect to be able to wash the feet of others. If I want to find people who truly need their feet washed, I have to step outside my clean, safe, comfort zone and go to the places that make feet dirty. This doesn't mean that we all need to travel to third world countries and find the dustiest or dirtiest places we can - there are people everywhere who have dirty feet, both literally and figuratively, and who need someone to wash their feet. But we have to be willing to go meet them where they're at, despite the dust and dirt that we'll also find there.

He came to Simon Peter, who said to him,"Master, are you going to wash my feet?" Jesus answered and said to him,"What I am doing, you do not understand now, but you will understand later."Peter said to him, "You will never wash my feet." Jesus answered him,"Unless I wash you, you will have no inheritance with me." Simon Peter said to him,"Master, then not only my feet, but my hands and head as well."

I can be a stubbornly independent person at times, and generally like to be the one doing the serving while also taking care of myself. In that sense, I can relate to Simon Peter - frankly, my first reaction to anyone, let alone my Master or teacher, washing my feet would be to say "It's ok, I can do it myself." Jesus makes it clean to Simon Peter and clear to us that we need to let others serve us too. We need to let others see the dirt on our feet and wash it off. It's reciprocal, you see - we are called to serve, but we are also called to let others serve us. One of the most beautiful things about my time in Nicaragua so far has been realizing that I am being served every time I serve. I learn as much or more from the communities I serve as they do from me, and I am inspired every day by their lives and by their love. They are serving me, helping me grow, washing my feet, as I simultaneously do the same for them.

So when he had washed their feet and put his garments back on and reclined at table again, he said to them, "Do you realize what I have done for you? You call me 'teacher' and 'master,' and rightly so, for indeed I am. If I, therefore, the master and teacher, have washed your feet,you ought to wash one another's feet. I have given you a model to follow, so that as I have done for you, you should also do."

So seek out the dirty feet. Get outside of your clean and safe zone, whatever that means for you and where you're at right now. Risk getting your own feet dirty, and find someone whose feet you can wash. And then, be humble enough to let someone wash your feet, too.