Forward!

I was riding my horse Dusty the other day and it was a beautiful crisp morning. I was by myself and I rode several miles enjoying the solitude and was thankful for being afforded some time to be alone and just think – A rarity for me.

I was making my way back to the stables when for no apparent reason Dusty stumbled and fell down HARD. It was all I could do to keep from going completely over his neck and then suddenly I was thrust backwards when he got back to his feet and took off running as fast he could. Obviously he was scared completely out of his wits and he was at full speed as though someone had released demons out of hell and they were nipping at his heels.

Unfortunately when the horse fell to the ground and then took off, the reins managed to slide through my fingers and I could not pull back on them enough to slow him down because there was too much slack. It was like trying to take the slack out of a tow line when water skiing and I was trying to pull back on the reins by holding them high over my head with one hand and clutching the saddle and trying to stay on the full cantor horse with the other. I could not get any leverage and the horse was galloping as hard as he could go. I yelled whoa, WHOA!

That clever maneuver of yelling at the top of my lungs only succeeded in scaring him more and speeding him up substantially. Next I started inching my hand down the reins a little at a time with my left hand while hanging on to the saddle for dear life with my right. Finally I got enough leverage to pull back on the reins hard enough to slow him down and bring him to a stop.

Whew! That was exhilarating to say the least.

Recently I was talking to a lady who underwent a nasty divorce. Her husband was a cad and ran around with numerous girlfriends and dumped her leaving her saddled with debt and oodles of bad memories. She seems obsessed with it and recounts her tale of woe to anyone who will listen – Over and over again.

After hearing the exact same story for about the fifth time I scolded her and told her the Bible tells us to look forward and not back. We should not dwell on the bad things that happen to us in life; rather look forward to what can be a bright future. What happened to her has happened billions of times to people in the past and will happen billions more times in the future. Yes it was bad, but it is in the distant past now and will fade away fast if she leaves it behind, and looks to the peaks that always follow the valleys of life. Keep going and don’t look back. Remember that we are just passing through this life in order to arrive at our destination which is glorious if you have accepted Christ.

I intend to go riding again this morning on the exact same horse that took off on me. If that clumsy fool trips again, I might switch to another horse, but I don’t intend to quit riding. In other words I do not intend to give up riding because of a little misfortune. (Okay it is a stretch to create an analogy here, but it is the best I can come up with this morning – I’m a little groggy and have not had enough caffeine yet.)

Bottom line: Put your FAITH IN THE LORD and concentrate on Him and His kingdom and His purpose for you and don’t look back and you will be fine.

Luke 9:62
Jesus replied, “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God.”