Why Bare Feet?

This site used to be called A Fretful Flock, and it was about living the Christian life while struggling with anxiety. Many of the older posts still mention that title, and many newer posts will deal with anxiety, because I’m the writer, and I deal with anxiety.

I’m also a Christian novelist. This site isn’t about my fiction, but my fiction was the impetus for the site’s change from a blog about anxiety to a site about more, about fully surrendering my life to Jesus. It started with a character named Jericho who felt led to enter church with bare feet, emulating Moses standing on holy ground.

Without delving into the story, let’s say Jericho touched me. I created a character who lived outside the norm. The guy didn’t have a phone. He didn’t even have a home. He roamed, reading his Bible, worshiping with strangers and his guitar, living the most sold-out, undistracted life for God I could imagine.

And I wanted that. I don’t plan to leave my home or phone behind, and I can’t play the guitar, but that surrendered life, the life fully focused on God, trusting Jesus to catch me every time I step onto the road—yeah. I want that.

First I had to grow in my love for Jesus. I’ve always longed for that. God spurred me to write a book about Jesus healing and meeting common folk on the dusty Judean roads. Looking at those stories with a storyteller’s heart and a historian’s eye, suddenly I saw Jesus as the Shepherd: his deep compassion, his powerful, protective authority, his emotional, spiritual heart that bled for us long before his body was broken.

And yes, God led me to fall in love again. That book, by the way, is coming in 2024. I think it’s valuable. If it can lead my heart toward Jesus, it can lead anyone’s. Deeply loving Jesus, deeply loving God–it changed me. Maybe others can read it and experience it and change, too.

But feet?

I still write about anxiety. A lot. But now I also write about the rest of the journey. Scouring the Bible for treasures. Spiritual disciplines and growth. Loving others. Trusting God. Suffering with joy. All the things that make up life, all placed at Jesus’s feet.

Why feet? Bare feet are vulnerable, and this is about trust. Bare feet get dirty, and sometimes we need helping cleaning them, and this is about serving. Feet bring good news. They take us where God wants us to go. They can be armored, and they can be hurt. So yeah, feet. Bare or in shoes, we use them to follow God, venturing where he wants on holy ground.

Come join me for the journey.

–Jill