A Second Glance at Getting On a Trailer...

Have you ever met the one? You know that one who at first glance you didn't see it, but then upon second glance you could not look away? You know just like all impactful things happen in your life, you didn't see that one coming?  That has happened a couple of times in my life now.  First it was meeting and falling in love with the most amazing man I have ever known, being blessed with the honor of marrying him and answering the call to be his spiritual battle buddy in this life we're adventuring through.  The second time was the day I met Buck...a horse. The day I went to collect Buck and bring him home, I spent 4 hours training him to get into a trailer.  Yes, four long excruciating training hours with a very tall, strong, spirited and fearful horse. However, it turns out not just any horse, but a horse who became a messenger of God in those first several hours together at the trailer.  Hence the second glance.....in that four hours of our one-step-forward-two-steps-back dance at the trailer, God spoke.  And He spoke truth, and He spoke about trust, and He spoke about this process of reconciliation with Him, and to Him. Feeling exhausted and defeated by a horse's natural fear of a trailer, I drove home that day without Buck, but with the promise of a return in a few days with sedatives! On that drive home, I heard God asking me, as He asks everyone at some point in their walk of faith in Him, for me to take that last step and "get all the way on the trailer".  God and I had been doing a lot of "trailer training" in one particular area of my life leading up to that day.  And to my dismay there was one more final step He wanted me to take.  And I would like to tell you that I bravely stepped up to the trailer right away, but truthfully I balked, reared and kicked the whole 2 hour drive home with God about that last step. It was really scary.  And it was the step that required me to say "okay, God, I choose to trust you with that deepest hurt and worst fear....I am willing to hand it all over to you, to get on that trailer, and ride through whatever happens, trusting in Your promise that You will be with me no matter what happens." I did courageously obey God that day.  I want to also tell you that it was about a 7 month long training process of the one-step-forward-two-steps-back dance that got me to that point of trusting Him with that one very broken part of me I had been clinging to the fiercest.  And God knew this too.  And He was and still is my most gentle and compassionate trainer.  He never put me on a timeframe with the promise of a sedative to get me on it.  No, He always led me one loving step at a time, patiently waiting for me to courageously put the next foot forward, trust Him enough with that step and then work on the next one.  Just as He asks us to do for our horses, He will always do for us.  And I am happy to report that getting on that trailer that day, turns out, was the most freeing choice I have ever made!!! 

 
His Teaching Cues: What "trailer" is God asking you to trust Him with? Is He asking you to get on it? Or is He just merely asking you to look at it with Him? 
 
His Promises: 
"Into Your hands I commit my spirit; redeem me, O Lord, the God of truth. ...I trust You.  I will be glad and rejoice in Your love, for you saw my affliction and knew the anguish of my soul. You have not handed me over to the enemy but have set my feet in a spacious place" Psalm 31: 5-8
 
"Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good; His love endures forever."
"Then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble and He delivered them from their distress.....He brought them out of darkness and the deepest gloom and broke away their chains....He sent forth His word and healed them." Psalm 107: 1, 6, 20
 
For further study and encouragement read Matthew 14:22-34
 
 

BUCK