I am still mulling over Proverbs 3:5&6 which says, Trust in the Lord with all your heart and submit to him in all your ways and he will make your path straight. Tonight a friend posted pictures of feeding time for the horses at the camp I worked at what feels like years ago. So many memories came flooding back to me as I saw the snow crusted ponies, the horizontal snow, and having to feed them in the indoor arena because feeding them in the pasture would mean I might not make it back to the barn.
Seeing the ponies in these pictures made me start thinking about the times I had fallen off while riding. Usually the reason I fell off was because I was anticipating going one way when the horse decided to go another way. Because my bottom was not planted in the saddle and my knees not gripping the saddle, when the horse diverted directions, I found myself lying on the ground. Had I relaxed, gripped with my knees, and paid attention I would have remained in the saddle.
This can also happen with my relationship with God and circumstances in my life. I come to a circumstance in my life and thinking I know how I want it all to happen and unfold or how I think God will allow it to unfold I get lazy and forget to relax and grip my spiritual knees. Then when God doesn’t answer the way I think he should or will, I get thrown off my spiritual wagon. I end up in a pool of frustrating tears that God is not answering my prayers and not on my time line. Yet, if I relaxed, if I sat back in the spiritual saddle, and waited with trusting joy, I would remain in the saddle. If I kept my mind in the spiritual saddle and watching for God to move then when he moves, I will be more supple to move with him. Instead of hitting the hard ground of frustration, anxiousness, and fear. When I sit back in the saddle and trust God as he moves, I will continually be amazed at the paths he takes and the things I will get to experience. He is after all a beautiful mover, he is the master of dressage (dancing for horses), he is the master of opening and shutting gates as he sees fit.
So the moral of the straight path story is relax in the spiritual saddle, trust the Lord, wait and watch as he moves and then move with him. Stop trying to force life to bend to my will, stop trying to stay in control of life and let God lead me. Continue to pray for wisdom and guidance, both of which the Lord wants to lavish on me when I’m ready to truly let him lead. Wisdom and guidance are the spiritual stirrups that allow me to stay in the spiritual saddle. They allow me the wisdom to know that what looks like side stepping to me is God working in a way I don’t understand, but will be revealed to me when God is good and ready. When I stop trying to guess what God is going to do and simply relax and sit back and let him do them, then I am not thrown off, because I trust God in the way he moves. Which doesn’t always, doesn’t usually, make sense to me, but I have learned he is the master life dancer and has got the steps down with ease and grace.
Peace is found in calmly sitting in the spiritual saddle, it is trusting the Lord and submitting to his ways. Peace remains when life seems crazy and chaotic, because I remain in the truth of the situation that God knows exactly what is going on and he is the master of calming the storms in situations and the storms inside of me. I’ll sit back and enjoy this thing we call life.