Is it Time for New Shoes?
For in his own eyes he flatters himself too much to detect or hate his sin. Ps. 36:2, NIV.
Cleaning out my closet, I found a pair of high heels I hadn’t worn in 30 years. Groaning as I remembered how my feet used to hurt after wearing those three-inch spikes with pointed toes, I shook my head. How could I have been so vain to wear them just because someone, somewhere, decided that it was fashionable?
I gave up spikes when the children came along, but I still wore heels.
Then came the accident that severely dislocated my foot, and I had to spend a number of years in shoes with good support. Why had it taken me so long to discover the comfort of a good-fitting flat-soled shoe?
Orthopedists and podiatrists say that in flat-heeled shoes 50 percent of your weight falls on your heel. In high heels only 10 percent does, which means that 90 percent falls on your toes. Is it any wonder women so often find themselves plagued with corns and calluses, flat arches, bunions, and ingrown toenails?
Fashion has a price. And the higher the heel, the more problems. When you stand, the foot is at right angles to the length of the leg, the long axis of the body. Such posture keeps the Achilles tendon in a stretched mode—as it should be. But high heels extend the foot so the Achilles tendon becomes shortened. The ankle is now unable to flex with each step, and in trying to compensate, the arch sags. The result? Fallen arches, flat feet, and more discomfort.
But that’s not all. High heels force you to arch backward to maintain balance, or you would tend to pitch forward. The bending calls for an increase in the concave curve of the lower portion of the back, the lumbar spine. Your muscles then have to support this unnatural spinal curvature. An aching back often results.
Sin is something like this. If it’s fashionable—and we’re vain—we’ll do it, even though we know it’s not good for us! The root problem, then, isn’t really the “shoes,” is it? It’s vanity!
Think about it—are there any unhealthful practices or sins that because of your vanity you are unwilling to give up?
Used by permission of Health Ministries, North American Division of Seventh-day Adventists.
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