In verses 14-15 of Romans 10, Paul begins a series of how questions: How will they call on Him? How will they believe in Him? How will they hear? And, how will others preach unless they are sent? To me, the how words seem, I mean no disrespect to Paul, but well…hopeless. When I think about where I am in view of where the world who’s never heard about Jesus is, the how questions are real and deep. (And the more trips I take overseas, the more frequent those how questions become). But don’t we serve a God who we often sit back in wonder and ask, “How did You do that?” I mean, when I put His name at the end of all my how’s, hope just seems to seep right in.
Maybe my big how God isn’t asking me to figure this all out; maybe He’s just asking for beautiful feet (because that’s where the end of all the how’s finally lands for Paul in verse 15). So what if we begin there? In other words, what if beautiful feet went and preached to people who just wanted the chance to hear, then upon hearing, they believed, and then they called on Him in whom they have believed, and were saved? Instead of beginning with how people will call upon the name of the Lord, we begin with beautiful feet that go looking for someone to speak a beautiful word into their desperate-to-believe heart. After all, this same chapter tells me that "Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ", so isn't all He's really asking for is my beautiful feet?
Paul started this chapter with a heart’s desire and a prayer to God for the salvation of people he loved. Can we also begin the next chapter of our life with this same desire and prayer? Can we take our beautiful feet to a world that’s just waiting to believe and call upon the name of our beautiful Lord, and be saved? We don’t need to know how He’ll do it; we just need to walk.
