“For we have not a high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin” (Hebrews 4: 15 KJV).
To “walk a mile in my shoes” is to spend some time facing the problems I face, feeling the pain that I feel, dealing with the trouble, frustration, depression, discouragement, disappointment, and doubt that I deal with. It is to enter my situation and circumstances and experience what I am experiencing. It’s to know firsthand what I wake up to every morning and live through every day.
We often tell someone that has been very critical and judgmental of us and who does not have an inkling of what we’re facing to not judge us until they “walk a mile in my shoes.”
The Bible tells us that “There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man” (1 Cor. 10: 13). Because each person is different from another there will be variables in our trials and tests but they are also so much alike that we can both empathize and sympathize with the sufferer. Because the choices I’ve made in life are different from the choices someone else has made I’m not likely to experience the same situations they encounter, but there are many who will. There can always be found someone who has been there, and done that, and “got a T-shirt.”
Jesus has walked a mile in our shoes and even walked the second mile. He once lived where we now live, walked where we walk, suffered the things we suffer, faced all the many things that we face every day. There is nothing we’re going through that He hasn’t experienced. Everything we’re going through that tempts us to turn from the path of obedience to God, Jesus went through but didn’t sin or fail to obey God. Whatever situation we’re going through we can go to Jesus Christ for help. He will immediately understand and relate to it because He can remember a time when He faced a similar situation while here on earth. He can give us the strength and wisdom to pass the test and be victorious.
