Giddy up and go

Hello all,

As many of you know even though I am a pastor for the Cowboy community I am still a cowboy in training. One of my goals is to become a proficient and confident rider. Over the winter both my daughter Jessie and I trailer her horse up to our friends place to rope cows. This is a great environment for Jessie in prepping for High School Rodeo, and for me to learn how to ride better each time I go out. For those who have been reading these notes over the last three years or so have come to know my love of horses but have also learned that I have had some real run INS early in life with horses which resulted in an unhealthy FEAR. Though this fear to work with and ride horses is really a thing of the past for the most part, the whole riding thing is still coming slow until a few weeks ago. It was Sunday afternoon, I was riding that famous Reining horse Chex, the crazy stud who tried to spin me off last spring, and in a moment of complete bravery, and courage came a defining moment in time and I found myself doing something I had been dreaming of doing. There I was free at last, as if I was flying in the air with no wings, wind in my face, and no obstacles, just me and Chex loping at last together. Whew, that was an amazing moment! There I was being watched by my daughter as I was loping in a circle, and hoping that I can remember how to stop, but finally I was doing it, and man was it a lot smoother then trotting. My first thought was this, why didn’t I try this earlier? What held me back? Can I actually be that stupid? Not really! It was a combination of things, confidence; I found my center of gravity finally, I was understanding all of my movements on Chex and the messages I was sending him were not so mixed anymore, I was translating my commands properly to my body and Chex understood what I wanted out of him, it was also faith, a leap in the right direction, and finally, the biggest thing, over coming my fear. I told my friend Sandy last summer that I wasn’t too sure if I could ever get this thing together, and she told me “no Blair you will get it right, it will just take some time, and I have more patience than you realize, so don’t worry I am here to show you how.” She was right, and wow I listened! Even though I am have so much to learn I feel as though I have taken a leap of faith that has put me on the next level of learning to ride.Coming to know God is very similar to my story up above. Maybe you have an unhealthy fear of God that needs to be worked out, and the only way you can do that is get into the saddle and overcome that fear; or there are days in which you don’t feel like you will ever get this thing right, and you are not sure if it will be worked out, but God is saying to all of us these words right now…. “No (your name) you will get it right, it will just take some time, and I have more patience than you realize, so don’t worry I am here to show you