Super Supras

If you know me at all, you know that I have a thing for skater shoes. I am not a skater in any sense of the word, but I love skater shoes sheerly for their coolness factor and comfort. Usually I wear Etnies or DC, but yesterday I happened upon some pretty sweet Supras. Anyway, they are amazingly comfortable.

The old saying is “never judge a man until you walk a mile in his shoes.” Well, if I have to walk a mile, I won’t mind walking in these shoes. But seriously, what does it mean to walk a mile in someone’s shoes? I do it a lot in my mind. I try to put myself in someone else’s place and imagine how they would feel or think about the situation. I guess you could call that empathy or the human experience. But I think that’s why it is so important to think before we speak. We often say things – shooting off at the mouth, as it were. And often we don’t consider some key things before we say what we say and we end up sucking on a big smelly foot.

Do we know what kind of a day someone had before we verbally blast them? How will what we are about to say affect them? Is it something that is going to encourage or bring them a smile or a laugh, or is it going to cause frustration or even anger? If a person is driving slow in the fast lane, how will our obvious impatience, rude gestures, or shouting affect that person. Maybe they just got some bad news, maybe they are exhausted after a double shift. Truth is, we never know. We just go about our mostly self-centered days without often stopping to consider what is happening in the lives of those we encounter at the supermarket who is moving a little slow or is tired behind the register. Life encounters all of us in different ways, and though we can’t often imagine what would happen for someone to have much and end up as a scruffy homeless guy living on the street, it’s a sobering reality. What brought them to that place? How do we treat them? What do we say?

Walking a mile in someone’s shoes – it’s changing your perspective. It’s seeing life from behind someone else’s eyes. It’s realizing that we are not the center of the universe and our actions and words can either give life or cause pain. I need to remind myself of this reality frequently, because I can get off track and get impatient or frustrated and forget that life is bigger than me and the human experience is wide and so multi-faceted! It all comes down to Jesus’ teaching in the Sermon on the Mount – what we commonly call the “Golden Rule.” He said, in Matthew 7:12, “Do to others whatever you would like them to do to you. This is the essence of all that is taught in the law and the prophets.”