Monday, October 03, 2005

This weekend going through the Good $en$e workshop and all my worrying and bitching and moaning leading up to the experience reminded me of the Horse Whisper I saw last fall and all my take aways from it. How Good $en$e was yet another halter being held out for me to CHOOSE to put my head and heart into...and all of it NOT to break me but to FREE me into YOUR purposes for my life....anyway as per usual it makes sense to me and maybe someone out there it will as well....God is good all the time IT'S me who forgets that.....

He began in the pen with this pretty little horse warily eyeing him. She had been minimally handled, having been wormed and branded, so very little human contact and what was was negative..... She and Bob Toomer hence forth re: as HW were in this ramshackle flimsy pen a bunch of metal gates wired together for this purpose and surrounded by bleachers so on top of HW in the center she had the distraction of maybe 3-6 hundred people watching.........
He began by equating her horse life before this time in the pen, to ours...time spent in our own pursuits, satisfying ourselves thinking that was ALL we had to satisfy or worry about..how we protect ourselves in that pursuit...He begins running the horse in a circle, just a light canter around the pen ....our life in circles with God at the center whether we know it or not....she runs and he starts telling us what he is looking for...looking for her to begin to 'humble' herself...She would stop and drop her head and walk and occasionally lick her lips, ultimate submission for a horse....so he approached her...very small steps and slow......if she moved she would have to run again until she assumed the humility pose......
He waited and approached her, not right up to her, maybe 3-5 feet....and then it became about her turning towards, choosing him.....and if she wouldn't, it was run again, not hard, not punishing, just useless running. Kind of like us...without God our lives just useless running.....He did this for about 90 minutes and finally she turned to him and was rewarded with stroking and calming words.......You could tell she loved it, craved it......
By this time HW was fatigued and needed a helper, in comes King a cow horse and very good at what he does but what HW needed was a horse to respond EXACTLY as he asked, to follow his lead...he had gotten to the point with the horse that this 3 ft. was very important to maintain and increase the closeness SLOWLY, at her choosing....Well King being a big eager horse could only approach with big fast jerky movements...HW couldn't use King and had to get another horse...
THIS is where the visual became quite personal .....how I saw myself as King...fully saddled and broke and eager to be of help...but moving bigger and faster or sooner and closer than God wants me to........eager but maybe not as obedient or as good a listener as I am supposed to be.
So in the ring comes Leviticus...Levi for short, another cattle horse but seemed to respond more in line with what HW wanted.......closer and closer, each time having the horse choose to allow it, to turn towards him......
It was INCREDIBLE when that horse which had never been lovingly touched, CHOSE to put her head inside the halter....it was amazing....She chose to allow it and the HW never forced her just presented opportunities for her to choose to KNOW her purpose as a saddle horse.....
I hope this makes sense because it deeply impacted me and I wanted to share some of the experience with you.....I loved the imagery...choosing to find our purpose....choosing to allow God into our lives, allowing Him to show us our purpose.

3 comments:

Melissa said...

Deeply impacted by the imagery...breathtaking!!!

Abi' K. said...

it's a stept to choose to put your head in god's halter for sure...often times i put it in and pull out too quickly before he gets to do with me what he wants...i am learning to leave it in there. it just makes sense to do so. you are a beautiful writer miss becky! i miss you and love you.--abs'

Bar L. said...

beatifully said...I am going to get the movie to watch asap (can't believe I haven't seen it yet). I am so glad you wrote about this today, I needed it!