The Flow
Only an hour before this photo was taken, I had been feeling very anxious, so I sought after my horse, Zoey. This glorious day marked the moment that i truly understood what it meant to hop onto God’s “flow”. I have struggled with anxiety for most of my life, as many people do. Praise God for my support system and all of His provisions. One of those provisions is time with my horse, Zoey. Now I’d like to tell you that this picture is an accurate representation of my history of horsemanship and that i have always been able to just hop on my horse with nothing and fly freely with the wind. It actually took a lot of painstaking training sessions (for me), many regressions in my relationship with Zoey and hours of walking her around the arena. Now back to the point of this post. I don’t know if any of you know what i mean when i say that there is a “flow” that we can hop on and that it is directed by the Holy Spirit. This is something that i have come to believe to be true.
The way that i ride Zoey with nothing but a little rope looped around her smooth and sturdy neck, is by lightly, (on a good day) tapping her withers, (the two little spots at the base of her horsey neck right below where her mane starts), opposite the direction that i want her to go. If she doesn’t listen to this, which is about 50/50 depending on her mood, then i increase the pressure. First, i will tap, if she doesn’t listen, then i will apply pressure with my leg. If she doesn’t listen to my leg, then i will use the little rope as a neck rein, or even tap her on the rump with a crop, always increasing pressure. If Zoey listens to my lightest suggestion of where to go, which is totally her choice, then we will fly freely in perfect unison. My directions will be barely noticeable to the naked eye. Zoey and i will be completely in tune. We will be in the “flow”.
As i’ve mentioned in previous posts, i believe that God works with us humans the same way that we (try) to work with our horses. It seems that in order to walk in His will 100% of the time, we need to yield to the lightest pressure. In my case, i find that as i begin to stray from God’s path, i get distracted, my anxiety builds, i begin to obsess about things that are out of my control, or seek relief from things other than Him. It is only when i stop, surrender, and truly listen to His gentle promptings, that i can hop right back onto His heavenly flow again. Now i am learning to hop on and stay on.
The day that this picture was taken was the first of many where my relationship with Zoey went from pulling teeth, to almost perfect harmony. It was also the day that i learned how to stay in God’s flow. Now this doesn’t mean that i have arrived, however, it does mean that i am beginning to learn. As one of my favorite authors, Lynn Baber, says, “There is no sweeter place to be than in His will.”
