Lynn Baber… for love of God and horses

Monthly Archives: February 2010

Is it possible to always live by right principles in the real world?

February 26, 2010

“I am impressed with the wonder of what God says, but He cannot expect me to really live it out in the details of my life!”

My misgivings arise from the fact that I ransack my own person to find out how He will be able to do it. My questions spring from the depths of my own inferiority. If I detect these misgivings in myself, let me bring them to the light and confess them – “Lord, I have had misgivings about Thee, I have not believed in Thy wits apart from my own.

These words were written by Oswald Chambers a hundred years ago. You know, people just don’t change, and neither does God.

Faith believes in the possible, not the present

The 2010 Winter Olympic Games are in full swing. Last night we watched skiers fly 50 feet in the air; twisting , turning, flipping, and performing feats that defy understanding in one whose feet stay as close to the ground as possible. The back of a horse is as high as I need to be, and I’m really starting to appreciate the 14-hand variety.

show jumping with name on photo

When a young horse enters the arena under saddle for the first time, if faced with a five foot fence, will see it as nothing more than an obstacle to be avoided. In smart riders, the same would be true! Yet, some of these horses (and riders) will go on to soar over fences with an ease that simply mystifies the rest of us.

Don’t limit your vision…

Oswald Chambers’ words are as right today as they were a century ago. Do not limit what you believe is possible by your own experience and understanding; stand on the promise of Victory in Jesus Christ – already achieved, and delivered by grace. Like the horse and the Olympic athlete, our vision will expand as we practice and master our lessons, until we too are able to fly!

Go out there today and be victorious.

Posted in: Christian Relationships, For the love of Horses, Understanding Life – 2 Comments

How to get what you want – Step One:

February 16, 2010

There’s an old joke about a man who prayed to win the lottery. God’s response was, “Help Me out… buy a ticket.” Step One in achieving success, or having your dearest wish come true, is initiative.

You will never get to Step Two without addressing Step One first. The manner in which this truth has been stated time and again is as varied as the speakers, but the essence is eternal. I can’t say it any better than did these, so I’ll step back and let you consider the matter in the words of others.

First you have to step outside... then comes joy!

Success and Initiative

Eighty-percent of success is just showing up. – Woody Allen

God helps those who help themselves. – unknown

Nobody made a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he could do little. – Edmund Burke

I prayed for twenty years but received no answer until I prayed with my legs. – Frederick Douglas

Action is the antidote to despair. – Joan Baez

“Do so” is more important than “Say so.” – Peter Seeger

Preach the gospel constantly. Use words if necessary. – St. Francis of Assisi

Action is Step One in achieving success

God will never do what we can. He will wait until we take the initiative and step in once our ability is exhausted. If we don’t try, that pretty much ends the matter at the outset.

Jesus always required personal initiative before He healed anyone. They had to “Arise” or “Stretch out your hand.” The requirement has not changed.

“God does not give us overcoming life, He gives us life to overcome.” (Oswald Chambers) Praying for an end to our apathy is fruitless. Apathy says we don’t care enough to try. If we don’t care enough to try, do you think God will? Nope.

Action and inspiration are two sides of the wheel that leads to success. The more action the more inspiration, and we travel further. The physical principle of inertia tells us that it takes more energy to get a wheel rolling that to keep it rolling.

So, the first step in achieving success, no matter what it is, is to get your wheel rolling. You can’t train a horse without movement, and it is silly to exhaust your energy considering which direction to go if you aren’t already moving.This is an objective matter, no guessing required. Act. Move. Try.

Give God a chance to answer your prayers. “Buy a ticket.”

Posted in: Business Excellence, Christian Relationships, Understanding Life – 4 Comments

Have patience… the rest of the story

February 12, 2010

I originally posted “Have patience” last September. Here’s what’s happened since…

“Have you ever just been itchin’ to get going on a project, but the control was not 100% in your hands? You have a couple of options here, depending on the circumstances. One is to push like mad to change the situation, the other to regroup and learn the lesson that is always offered in such cases.

Just received the production time line [September 2009] from my publisher on my new book. Looks like the official release date may not be until late next summer.

Waiting patiently

Wisdom and opportunity

Obstacles, we know, are placed before us to either overcome or to cause us to change direction. Wisdom tells us which is which.

Time is but one day added to the last. Patience doesn’t mean sitting idle, living in a vacuum until what we are waiting for happens. Patience is recognizing when we cannot control a particular time line, and choosing to use our time in pursuit of other goals while the first one simmers.

If an obstacle must be overcome, grit up and push forward. If patience becomes the watchword for the moment, have peace in the interim and use the opportunity created by your change in priorities. There is always an opportunity. Patience is just changing your focus from the kettle that won’t come to a boil for a while to the hors d’ oeuvres waiting on the counter.”

Discernment

Figure out what requires an all-out campaign to accomplish, and what doesn’t. Discernment is such a weighty word, because it’s big enough to carry the entire message. Most of the items on your to-do list aren’t critical. Be honest, they’re just not.

Getting after it!

Five months later…

Amazing Grays-Amazing Grace is published – five months ahead of schedule. Just when I got completely content with the lead time, the lead time vanished! At first I felt pressure to get MUCH done FAST. All the PR, all the media, all the programming, blah, blah, blah.

All in its own time. The pressure is off.

My enforced book limbo brought insights that had been lost in the dust of the manuscript skirmish. I needed separation to be able to refocus and see clearly. Having reached the opposite shore of the sea of patience I set out to cross last September, I have been blessed by the lesson that was so graciously offered. Will I be impatient again? Oh, I’m sure. Well, maybe. Whatever. I’ll just patiently wait until the next obstacle.

Separate the must-do from the want-to-do. Discern properly and your load will lighten immeasurably.

Posted in: Christian Relationships, Understanding Life – 3 Comments

Imagination and a suit of clothes…

February 10, 2010

How many of us worry, fret, and ball ourselves up into tight little bundles as we look at the magnitude of obligations that loom before us; as we consider the future of our children and the nation; as we try to figure out how we can possibly get our ‘list’ accomplished; or even just how we are going to get through until bedtime?

One of the legendary instructors at Dallas Seminary compared Christians to suits of clothes. He nailed it when he said that we are to be empty suits of clothes, animated by the Spirit of God. Can you imagine that for yourself?

Just Imagine...

Impossible.

It’s impossible! In today’s world it is factually impossible to do all that we commit to, want to, and need to – our feeling of failure for what we didn’t get done growing like a snowball gaining speed and girth as it makes its way down a long, long hill.

The secret of life…

The secret of life is relationship with God. The important question is not how, why, where, or when – the important question is ‘Who’? **

Imagination is what gives us the power to exceed the limits of our human vision. Imagination allows us to see ourselves as an empty suit of clothes, ready for animation by the Holy Spirit. Imagination lets us suspend our belief in only what we see, opening the door to relationship with God. The heartbeat of that relationship is faith.

Intellect stunts imagination

Christians are nourished by faith; led by faith; emboldened by faith; become fearless by faith. Intelligence is a great asset, but IQ by itself gets you nowhere in any spiritual sense. Actually, it is often more difficult for one with great intellect to move past what can be known, and on to what truly matters. That takes imagination.

Once we imagine ourselves to be but an empty suit of clothes, we become willing to let the Spirit of God direct the movements of our limbs, the direction of our travel, and the words we speak.

Security and peace

Parents who set limits for their kids tend to have more secure, happier children. Horses need boundaries to be secure and balanced. The same is true of every species that is herd or relationally based.

Our suit of clothes is visual evidence of our personality and our path. Some of us wear haute couture, some denim overalls. We still have our unique qualities; indeed God delights in them. God has no use for Stepford saints.

Let God use your suit of clothes. Once you do, you will find that your endless to-do list goes away. Priorities are established in quick order. Many of those previously pressing concerns will find a new home in the round file labeled, “Doesn’t really matter.”

You will find security, joy, and peace. God is on His throne. He is in control. Your imagination and faith will put you right where you both want and need to be.

Becoming threadbare

Like any suit of clothes, we all wear out. Let your imagination consider that truth. Our bodies get creakier and slower as our suit of clothes becomes worn and threadbare.

When the day comes that our suit of clothes has reached the end of its service, we are promised a brand new suit – designed by the Master to be immortal.

If your vision isn’t giving you the picture you hoped for, try using your imagination instead. Trust a higher vision.

My suit seems to have developed holes in the elbows and knees. But, I keep it as clean as possible, and offer it again today. I am not concerned. I am not afraid. I am not overwhelmed.

I’m just a suit of clothes.

** Excerpt from the Introduction of “AMAZING GRAYS-AMAZING GRACE: Pursuing relationship with God, horses, and one another.” For more information, click HERE.

AMAZING GRAYS cover

Posted in: Christian Relationships, Understanding Life – 4 Comments

Wild horses and hungry children…

February 3, 2010

How often has the question been asked, “Why does God let bad things happen?” Pictures and reports of the torture and abuse of both children and animals tear at our hearts. The most normal reaction in the world is to turn away, to change the channel, to mute the volume, until the evidence of horror is gone for the moment.

The nature of my work brings me reportage of gross cruelty to animals daily – especially horses. I, too, click frantically to remove the evidence from my computer screen. Like most others, I find the images hard to deal with. I don’t have enough money to save them all. We can’t rescue every pair of innocent eyes that seem to look directly into our soul, hoping for a connection that will bring a savior.

Homeless

Our hearts are meant to be torn

Humans and animals were created by God to live together in peace and harmony. It was the free will of man that caused the blood to flow, both literally and figuratively.

As Christians our hearts are meant to be torn, to bleed, when we witness the cruelty of man. But even in this, there is a promise; that our hearts will never be broken beyond repair. Should we not react viscerally to the evil perpetrated on the innocent, we would not be truly human, chosen members of the family of God.

God offered paradise. Man rejected God’s plan, thinking he had a better one. As is always the result, the innocent suffered, beginning with Abel who fell by his brother’s hand.

Video of hungry children anywhere is painful. The tragic circumstances of the wild horses of the western United States is currently front and center in the picture of man’s failure. The commercials that air on TV to request donations for the tortured and abused dogs and cats of our nation are painful to watch. They are meant to be painful.

We are not home yet

Children of God don’t run from this pain. It serves as a reminder of our failure; evidence of man’s arrogance, pride, and revolt. It also reveals a higher nature, one that is connected to a higher Spirit. Our present pain only reminds us that we are not home yet.

On Their Way Home

Character, conviction, and the actions they birth are the result of overcoming failure, both ours personally and that of mankind’s history. How do we do that?

First, get in right relationship with God. Exchange the failure of man for the promise and glory of the King. We will live in His kingdom. Only then will the original creation return – peace among all of God’s creatures. Joy will replace sorrow in that morning.

In the meantime, do what you can, when you can, for the children and the animals. Yes, your heart will be torn, but know that no one person can do it all, and God doesn’t expect you to. Bless those around you, both two-legged and four, with love, relationship, time, and care. You are not God. Man has delivered us to this place, but only God can get us out.

And He will. He promised. We have a Savior… that promise has been kept.

Posted in: Christian Relationships, For the love of Horses, Understanding Life – 7 Comments

Relationship: It’s a matter of perspective…

February 1, 2010

Brides and grooms, on your wedding day, did you care more about the reflection of yourself you saw in the mirror, or the reflection of yourself you saw in the eyes of your beloved?

Earthly eyes covet beautiful things, but our spirits yearn for beautiful relationships.

topshelfphoto

Many times people I meet when riding my horse, Bo, ask if he is for sale. They don’t really want him because he is a beautiful horse, what they want is the relationship he and I share.

By only a glance; only a touch…

When we desire a marriage like that special couple, who even after spending fifty years together, still hold hands and communicate deeply with only a glance or a touch; we don’t want that wife for our own, or that man for our husband – we want the relationship they model for us.

Christians who pursue the work of God frequently ignore their relationship with God, and concentrate instead on service alone. How do you see your reflection: in the eyes of other men, as in a mirror dimly, or your reflection in the eyes of God?

Finding the proper perspective

When we watch a horse and rider galloping along the crest of a hill, beautifully backlit by a golden orange sunset, we think, ‘How striking. How marvelous. What an emotional image.’

Does the picture change if you know that the horse is a runaway, and the rider in danger of severe injury?

Discernment comes from having the proper perspective. Correct perspective comes only by the Spirit. [Romans 1:21-23, 25]

What do you see when you look in the mirror?

“[Christian] workers break down because their desire is for their own whiteness, and not for [relationship with] God. Personal holiness is an effect, not a cause.” Oswald Chambers