Eyes on the Prize

My friend Lynda posted recently about Bits & Pieces. It reminded me of a recent trauma a coworker of mine went through.

His daughter is currently recovering from severe internal injuries suffered when she fell from a horse and was trampled. She will be OK, but she spent 5 days in the ICU, followed by another 5 on the floor. Can we all say hemopneumothorax together?

It seems the horse she was riding was a retired race horse (she didn't find out until after). She's not a novice rider, so when it spooked and bolted away, she stayed calm and reined him in HARD. Thing is, *apparently race horses are trained to fight the bit. The harder you rein them in the harder they run straight ahead. The only way to whoa them back is to rein in hard...and yank to the side. I guess that keeps nervous young jockeys from losing races. In this case it kept a young girl out of school for a month or two, and almost kept her out of life.

An experienced jockey would know this, and use it to his advantage to coax the horse to give everything he has to give, even beyond what he thinks he has left -- even amidst a crowd of other horses pushing and shoving and straining for the path -- because the prize is worth running hard after.

Paul talks a fair amount about running a race. He also says a thing or two about keeping our eyes on the prize and not looking back; pressing forward.

Maybe, like racehorses, we're trained to fight the bit that would take us off the pace; running all the harder for the strain. Seems Jesus talked a bit about sheep hearing His voice. Good Shepherd? You bet!

Still, sometimes following Jesus is like "the ride of your life".

Here's to the Good Jockey as well.

~ Keith

* this info has not been verified. I heard it third hand from my coworker, who heard it from a family member of his daughter's ICU roommate, also the victim of an equestrian accident