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YOU CAN LEARN TO
YIELD
Can a horse learn to yield? You can bet your cowboy boots they can! Can you and I learn to yield? Yep, but it usually takes us a lot longer to learn how!
Samson doing a side-pass to the left. In order to do a correct side-pass, a horse has to be willing to yield it's entire body to the rider.
It's not something a horse is born knowing how to do. He has to be taught.
THE MORE YOU HIT THE DIRT, THE MORE YOU LEARN ABOUT THE IMPORTANCE OF
THE YIELD
When I was young and just learning how to ride horses, I only had one agenda - get on the horse and go somewhere fast! Back in those days, I didn't have a clue about safety, groundwork, or even pre-flight checks. And I'd certainly never heard about "yielding the hind and fore quarters". Shoot, I didn't even know what the hind and fore quarters were! Funny as that seems now, what I didn't know back then could have gotten me seriously hurt, or even killed.
Thankfully, years later, folks known as "horse clinicians" began to pop up here and there, and I heard about a clinic being offered in my neck of the woods. I knew I needed help, so I immediately signed up. By this time, I had become older, but not much wiser in my horsemanship. However, along with age, I had become fully aware that I was a lot more fragile than I had been back in the day when a fall from my horse, or getting bucked off, simply meant a sore hiney, and perhaps wounded pride. Now it was far more serious. Intimate contact with the dirt now meant ice packs, a bad limp, and weeks of anti-inflammatory drugs just in order to walk, or do anything else for that matter! And then, along came a gifted clinician. He was a God-send, arriving just in the nick of time. By now, I was tired of hitting the dirt, and I was finally willing to listen and learn a better way. And that better way began the day that I learned about the importance of the "yield".
TO YIELD ISN'T A NATURAL SKILL
IT'S SUPER-NATURAL FAITH IN ACTION
The clinician stepped into the arena, looked each person square in the eyes, and said, "Today you are going to teach your horse how to yield. The success of everything else you hope to do with him depends on how well he learns this lesson."
When I close my legs and bring my heels close and tight to my horse's side, it is his cue to yield and lower his head. The closer and tighter my heels are to his side, the lower he yields his head. From my position in the saddle, I can ask my horse to touch the ground with his nose.
I've shared the story of the clinician, and his words about the importance of yielding, with you before. The reason is, it's important. At first, I thought the importance of yielding was just something that applied to my relationship with horses. But as the years continued to go by, I began to realize that the lesson I had learned about "yielding" went much deeper. If I was going to have a true partnership with God, then I would have to apply many of those same horse lessons about "yielding" to my own life, and my relationship with Him. I simply couldn't maintain or keep a part of myself or my life separate from God. It was a relationship that demanded that I yield everything. And everything included all of me - my spirit, body, and soul (mind).
This brings up a good point. Sometimes it's hard for people to yield themselves fully to God. In fact, it's not a natural skill we're born with. To yield one's self is really a super-natural act of faith that requires the help and strength of God.
SO, WHAT DO YOU DO IF YOU'RE NOT THE YIELDING TYPE?
TAKE A NEW ROAD,
OR MISS OUT ON YOUR BEST LIFE
Which road will you take? Since you only get one time around on planet earth, choose wisely!
I come from a long line of hard-headed folks (on my daddy's side) who were never the "yielding" types. In fact, being hard-headed was a proud family heritage, and just in case someone missed out via the gene-pool, it was written into every living will, "I hereby do leave my hard-headedness to ..." Anyhow, you get the point. Almost everyone in my family was a graduate with a degree in hard-headedness. As for me, I was a bona-fide hard-headed graduate with honors from the School of Hard-knocks. Instead of an actual diploma, I was awarded "an honorary big rock shaped like a brain" for having learned everything (or not) the hard way! It wasn't until I took a new road, and accepted Jesus Christ as the Lord of my life, that I was able to break free from the life-long habits and patterns that had kept me in a mental straight-jacket, and unable to live out my true God-given destiny. And it was only with "His strength" that I finally learned how to yield my life to Him.
"I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me."
(Philippians 4: 13)
WHAT WE CAN LEARN FROM HORSES
"I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way thou shalt go: I will guide thee with mine eye."
(Psalm 32: 8)
Whatever direction I am looking is the direction I expect my horse to go. This means that my horse must be in-tune with me at all times, and responsive to my leading.
Horses make great teachers for those who are always hungry to learn, and are students of life. One thing that makes horses such good teachers is their natural and instinctual understanding of leadership, and especially hierarchy. We can learn a lot from their behavior. Because they are prey animals, horses are born with survival skills already intact that allow them to quickly and correctly determine who is in charge, and who isn't. And they act upon that knowledge accordingly. Why? Because survival instinct tells them that their life depends upon them correctly assessing this knowledge the first time. In the world of prey and predators, second chances are rare.
If you've ever seen someone riding on the back of a 1200 pound horse who doesn't know who the leader is, (but he knows it isn't the one on his back), you know that it usually ends up being an experience not soon forgotten. In a nano-second, a horse can teach you just about everything you will ever need to know or understand about "hierarchy"! As for the horse, it's just another walk in the park doing "what comes natural". On the other hand, when an experienced rider gets in the saddle who understands what it is to be a real leader, and acts like one, things quickly change with that same horse. The horse that was nervous, anxious, and fearful before, now becomes relaxed, and soon gives up his union card! Why? Because he's found his "perfect peace" in yielding his entire body to the one whom he knows is really in control. And who would that be? The leader, of course. And every partnership demands one!
We Function Everyday Within A Social And Cultural Hierarchy That Often Determines Who Does The Wielding, And Who Does The Yielding
I like to set up things such as barrels (or cones), and teach my horse to circle the object "tightly" in both directions. It not only helps my horse to be aware of exactly where I'm focusing, but it teaches my horse that I do the wielding, and he does the yielding.
When it comes to humans, just like with horses, there's also an unseen hierarchy that is present. Of course, the dynamics aren't always as clear as they are in the animal kingdom where life is often dependent on quickly "knowing and demonstrating" their position to others. But it's there, nonetheless. Everyday, we function within a social and cultural hierarchy that often determines who does the wielding, and who does the yielding. For example, an employee yields to his boss, a student yields to his teacher, and a child yields to his parents. With a simple move to another country, the importance of that hierarchy might change, even radically. But one thing does not change for you and me, no matter who we are, or where we go. As Christians and followers of Christ, He always does the wielding. And you and I will always be required to do the yielding.
LOOKING FOR A NEW ROAD?
STOP BEING STIFF-NECKED
AND START YIELDING
"Do not be stiff-necked as your fathers were, but yield yourselves to the Lord,..."
(2 Corinthians 30: 8)
My horses have learned to "not be stiff-necked" and bow on command. You can't follow a command unless you're willing to yield to the Commander!
For horses and people, learning how to yield is remarkably similar. For both, it begins with recognizing and acknowledging who holds the authority. You can't yield to that which you do not recognize or acknowledge as the authority. In the same way, if the highest authority in your life is yourself, then you will be unwilling to "yield" your life to anyone else but you. To some, this feels like they have control of their own life. In truth, it's a fast track to losing it. One of the most difficult truths for unyielding people to grasp is that they are not their own. Secondly, unyielding people find it difficult to believe that God created everything with purpose in mind - His purpose, not theirs. At the center of every unyielding heart is pride. And haven't we all lived long enough now to know that pride always goes before a fall? I know I have!
Years ago, I only knew one way, my hard-headed way. And sadly, I think I was proud of it back then. You know, the family legacy, and all. But even a hard-headed cowgirl gets tired of falling, and eating dirt after awhile. God did an intervention in my life when he sent that clinician my way all those years ago just to teach me about the importance of the "yield". Fortunately, I had my ears on that day during the clinic, and I learned something about horses that changed my horsemanship for the better. But I learned something even more important along life's way - something with eternal significance. I learned that someone special had been created by God. And that special person was created and designed to yield - yield their heart, yield their dreams, yield their life, yield absolutely everything to Him. Turns out, that special person was you, and it was me. Now, who but our wonderful Creator could have thought of such an awesome thing!
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