Don't let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith and in purity. ~I Timothy 4:12~

Sunday, April 17, 2011

Jesus the Ultimate Horseman

Today is Palm Sunday. Many of us are familiar with the story of Jesus' triumphal entry. He rode in on a donkey and people laid down palm branches in front of Him. However, there has always been one part that has stuck out to me. That was how this passage proves Jesus' innate master horsemanship.


Luke 19:30
“Go to the village ahead of you, and as you enter it, 
you will find a colt tied there, which no one has ever ridden. 
Untie it and bring it here."

Some versions read "which no one had ever sat on." Not only had the colt had no training, Jesus had never ridden anything before (which is why Him riding in for the triumphal entry was important). The fact that Jesus was able to just get on a young, unbroke colt and ride it without worry was reason enough to be impressed by Jesus' horsemanship. BUT that's not the only impressive quality of this display of horsemanship.

John 12:13
They took palm branches and went out to meet him, shouting 

Matthew 21:8-9
A very large crowd spread their cloaks on the road, while others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. The crowds that went ahead of him and those that followed shouted 

This is DEFINITELY not the kind of environment you want for a colt's first ride. Or even one of their first few rides. Honestly, I don't know a lot of trained horses who could face all of these scary circumstances. For the John passage, this makes me think of people running up to see Jesus while holding giant palm branches. Big moving odd shaped things = SCARY!! Not only that, but once they are there they form sort of a walk-through tunnel of scariness--another thing that makes even some of the better trained horses nervous. 

Next, there are cloaks and branches on the road. Now the colt has to look at the stuff on the ground too. It's taken me hours before to get a trained horse just to put one hoof on a tarp! And probably one of the biggest things is the shouting. Every version of the triumphal entry story tells of all the shouting that took place. Not only that, but the Matthew passage says that both in front and behind of the colt was shouting. Colts are very noise sensitive, and especially when things are behind them in their blind spot!

Overall, this is an almost impossible situation for a rider. A young horse on its first ride being faced with an overload of different scary stimuli. I wouldn't even subject a horse that wasn't bullet-proof to all of this. But Jesus, being awesome, proved that amazing horsemanship is among the list of His awesome traits. It's another reason why I'm amazed by Him, and another area of my life for me to strive to be more like Him.

Monday, April 11, 2011

My Real World Essetials

It's easy to get caught up in the desires of the world and earthly possessions. Especially for me in the horse world. There is always this desire for fancy tack, flashy clothes, and just plain more stuff. I'll admit I've fallen to this (i.e. the fact I own 4 saddles and only one horse). However, now that I'm in college I'm realizing what I want to be able to buy when I'm in the real world. There is a passage that has always stuck with me.

Proverbs 30:8-9
give me neither poverty nor riches,
   but give me only my daily bread.
 Otherwise, I may have too much and disown you
   and say, ‘Who is the LORD?’
Or I may become poor and steal,
   and so dishonor the name of my God.

This combined with thinking about the burden of paying my own bills and having a real job got me to determine what I would need to have the means to obtain in order to be happy with my life. While some people may have things like cars, houses, and a plethora of entertainment options; my list is something a lot more basic. It's the bare bones of what I think I need in my life in order to be content.

  • Enough food so I won't be hungry.
  • A place to live that protects me from the weather conditions and extreme heat/cold.
  • Medical care (doctor's, emergency room, medicine, surgery) when needed.
  • Ability to maintain proper personal hygiene.
  • A way to get where I need to be when I need to be there.
  • A phone that can call and text.
  • Clothes that I can be presentable in public.
  • A place to keep my horse and food for him.
  • Care for my horse (feet, veterinary, shots, dewormer, etc).
  • Enough income to pay off my student loans.
So when other hopeful college graduates may have a yearly income in mind, my hope is that when I graduate I'll have the means to obtain these things. As long as I have them I have absolutely no room to complain! I'm perfectly fine giving up the extras of life. In fact, my hopes are to put whatever I make beyond this list (if God so blesses me) to further His kingdom. As long as I have these bare essentials I'll be alright!

Sunday, April 10, 2011

Foundations and Fancy Things

I've heard it many times. You probably have too. A good foundation is the basis of everything: building a house, learning to read, training a horse, and (of course) religion. So if it's something that's pretty common knowledge how come it's still an issue? Is it even still an issue?

Well, I guess that's your own decision, but in my life it definitely still is. And God definitely showed that to me. When I got Zeke I knew I would be training him. I had worked for a horse trainer before and would work with the horses after he thought they were far enough for me to work with. He was the one laying the foundation and I was the one adding on the more interesting and advanced things. In my head these were the "fun" things.

Because these things were more exciting and more fun, I liked them more and spent more time on them. I knew the horse already had the foundation, so revisiting it wasn't too important right? No, I was wrong. But at that time I didn't realize it because the trainer had already done such a good job laying down the foundation in the horse that my lack of attention to it didn't cause it to crumble. As I added on the fancy frills to the horse I wasn't going back and reinforcing the foundation. Like I said, lucky for me the foundations of these horses were fully developed and reinforced before any extra fancy things were added.

However, with Zeke it was up to me to lay this foundation. I did just that. I laid down a good foundation. He knew everything he was supposed to, and once he did I deemed it time to move on to the fun stuff, the stuff I wanted to be working on. His basics weren't flawless, but he understood and could do everything pretty well. So once I felt he had a "good" foundation I started adding in the more advanced, fancy and fun training aspects. As you can see from the picture I was working on getting him to hold his head nicely and feel like butter in my hands. That's definitely an upper-level move. It was still early in his training (notice the helmet).

My desire to move to the fun stuff ended up being detrimental. Although he had a good foundation, it wasn't properly reinforced. As I added on more frivolous, fancy things the weight became too much for the foundation I did lay and its flaws became more apparent. These holes and cracks in the foundation kept growing, Zeke was getting confused and frustrated and so was I.

Now to remedy my lack of foundation building before moving on the more "fun" and challenging obstacles I've decided to reinforce the foundation completely until it can't be moved before moving on. I've learned from experience that I would rather a horse have a flawless foundation with no "extras" than a horse that can do things many horses can't but doesn't have as strong of a foundation.

God has used this to teach me about Him. I feel that He wants the same for us. There are many things that we as Christians can get excited about and want to get caught up in. These are the big controversial issues of the modern church such as charismatic gifts for example. These issues and just absorbing yourself in doctrine, history, and the likes aren't a part of the foundation per say, but the fancy extras built upon it.

I have friends who can go into depth on so many deep topics and issues in the Christian world, but does that make me any less of a Christian? No, of course not. Although there is nothing wrong with knowing deeper theology, I feel that God would prefer us have an unmovable foundation. That being our relationship with Jesus and obeying what He commands. And the simply way to obey what He commands is to love God and love our neighbors. After all, doesn't that sum up the entire law?