Tom’s ‘A Day Without Shoes’

Yesterday was Tom’s “A day without shoes” day. I love these events where it causes me to constantly think about the injustice I are praying for as I put thoughts and prayers into action. I am currently at the YWAM facility in TJ, Mexico parenting my kids as my wife staffs the school of photography so I thought I would tweet about the day and not walk it out (there is a lot of rock and dirt down here). My rational was that I may get a cut or puncture wound (awesome), on my foot. What the heck, was I just thinking I would participate if I was surrounded by grass and beach? I am such a tool at times.

Anyway, back to Tom. So a few minutes after I Tweet the Tom’s shoes thing my buddy @willinpismo replies asking if I was participating as well. Crap, called out in public. It was then that I realized that if I want to do this and encourage others to do it I might as well do it hard core. I would realize much more how freaking unjust it is for a child to have no shoes if I walked on rough ground with nails, glass, and crap (literally, dog crap) around me. If I was going to pray, I knew that this was a place that would help me remember those without shoes. My disclaimer here is that I am not saying Mexico is all filled with trash on the ground, just the area I had to walk through to get to where I needed to be.

So I took off my rainbow sandals and began my day. Emma, my 7 year old asked if she could participate as well. I told her that it was only for adults as I knew she would be playing and could get easily hurt and I also knew that her mother would kill me. I explained to her what was going on and she became Tom’s greatest advocate. I had other adults coming up to me during the day telling me that Emma asked them why they weren’t taking their shoes off like their dad to pray and remember those without shoes. Rad.

At first it is liberating not having to wear shoes. Then you walk on gravel and go into public bathrooms, liberation over. It was difficult to go without shoes. The ground was hot, I had to walk super slow like an old person at times when on rock, people were looking at me like “why is that dude not wearing shoes, what is he trying to prove, is he some sort of hippy? The one thing that was good about it being hard is that I constantly remembered those without shoes. I am also going to purchase a pair of Toms shoes so that someone who has no choice but to go bare foot can get a pair of shoes.

I went to bed last night with tingly feet. Tingly because they were sore and tired and recovering. I remembered the children of the world with no shoes who live in crappy places to live when you have no shoes. Today I will continue to remember kids with no shoes as I purchase a pair of Toms. I can’t afford a pair of Toms today, but I am going to make it happen, because without sacrifice there is no reward.