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TheDiscipleMd

Although I was born and raised in the Washington, D.C., area, my roots are found in the farms of Southern Idaho. And so it seems that every few years we would, as a family, make a pilgrimage back to my parents home town. On one of those summer trips we stopped in to visit with one of my mothers sisters. One of my cousins named Jack, had a horse that he wanted to show me and my siblings. I was about ten at the time. Jack who was several years older than me, asked his mom if he could take us to see the horse. She said yes, but under no condition should we ride the horse. My cousin drove us over to where the horse was being stabled. I don’t remember why or how, but somehow, Jack, as well as me and a couple of my siblings ended up on the back of that horse. Being a city boy, I had never ridden a horse before so this was something new and wonderful. We started our bareback ride peacefully enough. Jack had the reigns, and I was riding forth, near the back-end of the horse. Suddenly the horse started to run and I could feel that I was starting to slip off to the left side. I grabbed on for dear life around the waist of my brother who was seated in front of me. I don’t remember exactly what happened next, except the sight of seeing all three of the riders in front of me begin to slide to their left. I hit the ground and rolled around a few times. I lay there crying and if I remember correctly, my brother got knocked out from the fall. One thing for sure was that, as my cousin slammed into a telephone pole, he let go of the reins. The horse ran off and the four of us lay in a heap of mangled flesh on the side of the road. I don’t know how long it took to find the horse, or how many strips that my cousin Jack got for his disobedience. I did learn that riding bareback didn’t provide you with anything to grab onto when you started to fall. I rode a few horses later on in life, but never again bareback. When I did ride, I always rode with a saddle that had a horn. As an unexperienced horseman, having that saddle horn provided me with the security needed in order to enjoy the ride.

Sometimes the excitement of a “bareback” ride is enticing. You can feel the warmth of the horse and your connection to such a tremendously powerful animal is exhilarating. However, the odds of a fall are tremendously increased when you don’t have a saddle horn to hold onto. A ‘bareback” ride through life can also provide certain thrills. The physical sensations of such a ride can also be enticing. But, bye and bye, the time will come when life seems to go into a “full run.” Before we know it, without the gospel as our “saddle horn”, we have fallen to the ground as “the horse of life” rides onward, leaving us bruised and broken. Perhaps the time will come when we can ride bareback. I just know that, “that time” doesn’t appear to be in this life. Let us be smart. Let us grab onto the saddle horn of the gospel. We will find that riding on the horse to the end of our journey is a lot more enjoyable than seeing the horse’s rear end disappear in the distance as we lie bruised and bloodied on the ground.