About a half mile up the road from my house is a gorgeous pasture, resting at the foot of ponderosa-covered mountains. Grass-filled, with occasional stands of aspen and rocky outcroppings, the place is one of my favorite spots to watch horses and elk graze.
It's fun to walk down there to watch the horses feed out of troughs filled with hay and alphalfa.
They come up to the fence and I get to scratch their dusty necks and talk horsey talk while they lazily flick flies off their rumps and nuzzle the fence posts.
After breakfast, the horses --I think there's close to 20 of them --meander farther into the field to graze or shelter in the cool shade of aspens.
It's been this way for me for the five years that I've lived in Estes: take my walk and stop next to the field to watch the lazy saddle horses graze.
But the other day, as I was making my circuit from my neighborhood and up to the highway, something must have gotten those usually phlegmatic horses very excited. Whinnying and calling back and forth, several of the horses broke out into a gallop. Not a canter, but a full-blown, all out gallop.
Tails high, waving like war banners, manes flowing, longs legs stretched out in strides longer than the animal itself, hooves pounding the earth, powerful muscles rippling in the sun. They seemed filled with joy, almost as if they were exulting in their own speed. Glorious steeds!
Magnificent.
The horses were doing what God created them to do. Run!
I wanted to jump up and down and squeal and shout, "Hooray, good for you, beautiful horses!"
Then I thought about us as average, ordinary Christians. How often do we take off with passion into our "fields? To stretch and flex and whinny and stride and pound the earth?
Aren't you moved when you see the horse run full-out? Is that because you yearn to do what the horse is doing: stretch out to the limits of all that God has endowed you?
God knows we were meant to do more than laze by the water trough and flick flies.
Perhaps this message is for you today: Don't hold back because of fear or uncertainty or even complacency. Let God stretch you. Let Him fill you with courage and joy in the fulfilling of His purpose for you.
Draw near to Him, get to know His glorious character, fall in love with Him, listen closely to Him.
He's got a mission for you.
"Now to Him who is able to do immeasurably more than we ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us, to Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever. Amen." (Eph. 3:20,21)
It's fun to walk down there to watch the horses feed out of troughs filled with hay and alphalfa.
They come up to the fence and I get to scratch their dusty necks and talk horsey talk while they lazily flick flies off their rumps and nuzzle the fence posts.
After breakfast, the horses --I think there's close to 20 of them --meander farther into the field to graze or shelter in the cool shade of aspens.
It's been this way for me for the five years that I've lived in Estes: take my walk and stop next to the field to watch the lazy saddle horses graze.
But the other day, as I was making my circuit from my neighborhood and up to the highway, something must have gotten those usually phlegmatic horses very excited. Whinnying and calling back and forth, several of the horses broke out into a gallop. Not a canter, but a full-blown, all out gallop.
Tails high, waving like war banners, manes flowing, longs legs stretched out in strides longer than the animal itself, hooves pounding the earth, powerful muscles rippling in the sun. They seemed filled with joy, almost as if they were exulting in their own speed. Glorious steeds!
Magnificent.
The horses were doing what God created them to do. Run!
I wanted to jump up and down and squeal and shout, "Hooray, good for you, beautiful horses!"
Then I thought about us as average, ordinary Christians. How often do we take off with passion into our "fields? To stretch and flex and whinny and stride and pound the earth?
Aren't you moved when you see the horse run full-out? Is that because you yearn to do what the horse is doing: stretch out to the limits of all that God has endowed you?
God knows we were meant to do more than laze by the water trough and flick flies.
Perhaps this message is for you today: Don't hold back because of fear or uncertainty or even complacency. Let God stretch you. Let Him fill you with courage and joy in the fulfilling of His purpose for you.
Draw near to Him, get to know His glorious character, fall in love with Him, listen closely to Him.
He's got a mission for you.
"Now to Him who is able to do immeasurably more than we ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us, to Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever. Amen." (Eph. 3:20,21)
Amen! All things are possible with God... even for a mule to run like a horse!
ReplyDeleteHave a great 4th of July :-)
~Ron
Thanks, Ron. You have a great one, too.
ReplyDelete