Saddle sore

The grandkids have often asked me why I don't have a horse, and I have told them that first of all they eat too much and they ruin a pasture for grazing other livestock.  The other reason I give is that they have to be ridden often, and I would be the one to ride them several times a week.

I grew up riding horses. My family had horses and Shetland ponies at one time or another for many years. Caring for animals is something that I have always enjoyed, but I loved riding horses during junior high and high school. 

Collin has been wanting to ride horses for a long time, and I promised him over a year and a half ago that I would take him to some friends’ farm to ride.  He didn't nag me about going, but he has been regularly reminding me about this promise. 

My friend, Buddy (I wrote previously about him), and his family live on a cattle and horse farm in east Tennessee, and they had invited us to come to see them and ride horses. We had a great time with them one weekend recently, and we rode a LONG TIME! It was a lot more riding than I had bargained for, but, hey, Collin was very happy. 

Oh my! Was I ever sore! I don't ever remember being sore during those years of growing up with horses--probably because I rode so often? No, more than likely because I am 50 years older now!

I read recently that John Wesley spent 53 years riding a horse and preaching. Okay, so let's say he started riding and preaching when he was 15 years old--he rode until he was older than I am now. That is called suffering for the Lord.  

John Wesley planted 500 churches and 140,000 people came to faith in Jesus over those 53 years of horse-back riding. He had incredible perseverance.

Hudson Taylor once said: "Every challenge has three stages: impossible, difficult, and done. The hardest stage is the difficult stage because it takes perseverance." Many of us give up when a task gets to be difficult. 

As I look back over the last few months I am asking myself, "Have I persevered through a difficult task and called it done?" 

"Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God." Heb 12:1-2