It all started when someone invited Palmer Chinchen, author of True Religion, to speak in chapel at Cedarville University. Palmer is known for his compassion for the poor across the globe, and once hosted a "Barefoot Sunday" at his home church. On Barefoot Sunday, church members were encouraged to leave their shoes at the alter (to be given to those living in poverty with no shoes at all) and go the rest of the day without wearing shoes. Cedarville's current freshman class dreamed big, and held what was called Barefoot Thursday on the day that Palmer spoke - Spetember 8, 2011.
The goal of Barefoot Thursday is twofold. Firstly, to collect pairs of shoes for those in need. Secondly, to help those of us living in comfortable middle-class America empathize with the poverty-stricken population. Today was unusually cold and rainy (but it's Ohio - really, nothing is unusual), making it an inconvenient day to trek around campus barefoot. Along with many others, I made the decision to not only donate a few pairs of shoes that I knew I no longer needed, but spend the day without shoes.
The wet sidewalks were cold; and when your feet are cold, your whole body is cold. But at the end of the day, I had lost nothing from my day without shoes. Is going without shoes really that big of a deal? Maybe not for people who only spend a few minutes outside in the cold before going indoors to warm up. And shoes don't matter when you walk only on soft grass or smooth sidewalk. But soft grass, warm buildings, and clean sidewalks are also middle class luxuries. Imagine going a day without shoes in poverty-stricken Africa. Imagine having no shoes while you search for food or shelter amidst ground covered with trash or broken glass. Imagine that you have a cut on your foot with no antiseptics or bandages to help it heal. A day without shoes in poverty is different than a day without shoes in suburbia.
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