Out Our Way: " Four Left Hooves" Psalm 27: 7-9

Out our way, some folks love to go "boot scootin'" on a Saturday night. Dancing was never something I could do well as I have what my percussionist son calls "Rhythm Deficit Disorder" - also known as "two left feet." Well, as bad as that may be, it's nothing compared to Ole Doc who has "four left hooves." More than once I have been tossed when Doc managed to trip himself up while on the canter or gallop and I sort of found myself airborne.

The guy I rented the paddock from worked horses quite a bit and he said I needed to take Doc into the round pen with a lead rope and try to get him to develop his right and left lead. He suggested Doc kept stumbling because he hadn't really learned how to get that rhythm and coordination going. So I took him out and got him running - making the clicking sound for the trot and canter - and the "kissy" sound for the gallop and all out run. And we went around the pen to the left for a time, then I hauled him in and sent him around to the right. He actually got his right lead fairly quickly and soon was running smoothly (well, it would still have been like riding a jackhammer - but he wasn't tangling his legs). Ah, but the left lead - that didn't come easily. He would throw his head and occasionally "calf kick" (turns out he had a tendency to get a "charlie human" (his version of a "charley horse") in his left hip that acted up from time to time if he didn't warm up first).

Working him in the round pen over time, I watched him slowly develop that pesky left lead. After warming up, I would head him off at the trot with a "tsk tsk" and then watch him slowly find his gait. After a few revolutions and seeing he seemed to finally manage to trot without tripping himself when going left, I would change things up with a "kiss kiss" sound and he would break into a fast cantor and then with a bit more encouragement, into a full gallop.

  He still tended to trip himself up from time to time, but with constant practice and working on it, he began to finally develop the coordination he had not had before. I still got launched occasionally when he forgot to coordinate his four legs and tripped himself up, but those occurrences were becoming less frequent.

Sometimes you just have to be patient and trust it will come together.

Now I find I am as often spiritually uncoordinated as Doc is physically. There are days when my "right lead" is clean and smooth and my spiritual run seems to be going well. But there are also days when I am on my "left lead" - and I keep tripping myself up and falling down on the job.

I find myself impatient, judgmental, and even vindictive at times.

Instead of "riding for the Brand," I discover I have been riding for the other outfit who want to divide the herd and rustle the strays that lose their way.

People look to me as a supposed disciple, but too often they only find a hypocrite instead.

I have shared how my late cousin lost all her faith because of those who talked about loving Jesus but did not follow Him. (Luke 6:46)

Doc never meant to trip over his own legs, nor did he ever buck me off on purpose. But I ended up getting tossed anyway and ate a lot of dirt over the years. So I needed to work out the kinks in Doc's gait in the round pen over the years. I never meant to be a hypocrite or obstacle to others coming to the Lord, but how many have been turned away from Christ because His representative {me} "tripped over his own spiritual feet" and tossed them into the cactus?

So, now God has me in His "round pen" and is working me hard in the effort to help me develop "my left lead." My faith, weak though it may be, is the lead rope - and the trials and tribulations are those smacks on the rump administered to get me to pay attention and move forward to work out the glitches that cause me to trip myself up and toss would be followers of Christ into the dirt.

I claim to ride for the Brand, but when I trip myself and others up, I serve the other outfit. I am in the round pen learning my "left lead" so I can indeed ride for the Brand alone.

Be blessed and be a Blessing!

Brother John