"The Rest of My Life"

While we were still dating, my wife asked me "How long will it take you to learn to train horses?”

My reply was "the rest of my life.”

At the time, I was talking about horses. I understood there would always be more to learn, more to understand, and more ways to grow. Every horse would teach me something, and every experience would shape the horseman I was becoming.

But over the years, I’ve come to see that answer as something much bigger than horsemanship.

Jim Elliot wrote, “One does not surrender a life in an instant. That which is lifelong can only be surrendered in a lifetime.”

I'm gonna take a little twist on this blog (writing along with my wife) in a direction other than just horse training tips.

We sometimes think of surrender as a single moment - a decision or a prayer. A turning point when we finally hand everything over to God. And those moments matter. But I'm learning (in real time) that surrender is also something we learn to live, day after day, and year after year.

It’s choosing to trust God when we don’t understand the lesson. It’s allowing Him to challenge what we thought we knew. It’s letting go of our need to control the outcome and becoming willing to listen, and be patient, and to grow.

In many ways, working with horses is a direct parallel of this. You can't rush a horse's understanding. You can't force a genuine partnership. You have to show up, pay attention, recognize where you fall short, and be willing to learn again tomorrow.

And I think God is doing something similar in us.

Horses aren't the measure of our faith, but that same process of learning to work with them shows us a heart required to walk with God, in humility, with patience, consistency, and a willingness to be taught.

We spend a lifetime learning horses, and a lifetime learning to surrender ourselves to the One who made us.

We will have days when we get it right and days when we realize how much we still have to learn. There will be moments of clarity and seasons when the lesson is harder to see. But God is not finished with us simply because we have more growing to do.

Maybe the goal isn't to arrive at a place where we know it all, or finally have everything figured out. It's an invitation is to keep showing up, keep learning, keep trusting, and to keep surrendering.

All those years ago, my answer was, “The rest of my life.” I was talking about learning to train horses, but I think that answer applies to much more than that.

Learning horses is a lifelong pursuit. Surrendering to God is, too.

And by His grace, we have the rest of our lives to keep learning both.