Horse Sense
“When
the Pharisees heard that He had silenced the
Sadducees, they gathered together. Then one of them,
a lawyer, asked Him a question, testing Him, and
saying, ‘Teacher, which is the great commandment in
the law?’ Jesus said to him, ‘You
shall love the Lord your God with all your heart,
with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is
first and great commandment. And the second is like
it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On
these two commandments hang all the Law and the
Prophets.’”
(Matthew 22:34-40)
There’s an old
phrase in the English language which you may
remember from years ago, called “horse
sense.” Will Rogers used those words several
times, and they mean “common
sense,” something that Webster’s New
Collegiate Dictionary, defines as “sound
and prudent, but often unsophisticated judgment.”
“Horse sense” is
simple wisdom, which is quite rare in this world,
but paradoxically, it is available to us all.
We received an
email with the title, “Horse
Sense,” and it contains these words: “Just
up the road from my home is a field with two horses
in it. From a distance, each of them looks just like
every other horse, but if one stops the car or is
walking by, you’ll see something quite different.
Look into the eyes of one of the horses and you’ll
notice that he is blind. His owner has chosen to
not have him put down and has made a good home for
him. Listening, you can hear the sound of a bell
and you can see that it comes from the smaller
horse. Attached to her bridle is a bell. It lets
her blind friend know where she is so he can follow
her. Looking at the two friends, you can see how
she is always checking on him, and that he will
listen for her bell and then slowly walk to her,
trusting that she will not lead him astray. Like
the owners of these two horses, God will not throw
us away just because we are not perfect or because
we have problems or challenges. He watches over us
and even brings others into our lives to help us
when we are in need. Sometimes we are the blind
horse being guided by God and those who He places
into our lives. Other times we are the guide horse,
helping others see God. God sends us friends who
are like stars – you can’t always see them, but they
are there.”
A friend should
not only be willing to BE a helping hand, but also
receive help, as well. We are all painfully “blind”
to the feelings of others and shouldn’t be surprised
when others don’t “see” our intentions. They have a
need to give and so do we, and we feel rejected when
the gift is not received as we think it ought to
be. In our isolation, we tend to not “hear”
the “bell”
attached to the “bridles”
of those around us, and don’t recognize that God is
sending them to us (and us to them).
How does this “bell”
work? To sum it all up: we are to love one another,
which, as Jesus pointed out, is the “great
commandment,” the great NEED of our lives.
And He makes it relatively easy because love is
brought to us by and through the Holy Spirit of
God. Paul the Apostle, who was surprised by the
grace and love of God, observed that “the
fruit of the Spirit is love…” (Galatians
5:22). It’s HIS love IN you that is real love.
In our Scripture
for today, we find Jesus once again being attacked
by the “theologians,” the doctors, the “great
thinkers” of his time. These were men who were
supposed to have wisdom, and yet they demonstrated
their lack of it by attacking God Himself, the
source of all true wisdom in this world. They
demonstrated their lack of “horse
sense” by their lack of love, as Jesus
clearly pointed out to them.
Proverbs 1:7 says,
“The fear of the Lord is
the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom
and instruction.” “Fear”
becomes faith, as you to “Trust
in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your
own understanding” (Proverbs 3:5). When you,
“in all your “ways
acknowledge Him…” you start to see that “He
shall direct your paths” (Proverbs 3:6).
It’s plain “horse sense”
to look to the Lord – He’s here for you right now
and He brings His love with Him – His gift to you
and me. Will you receive His gift?
To be in love is
wonderful, and I have come to believe that all love
is the gift of God. The love of a man and woman,
the love of a parent for a child, and the little
ones for their mom and Dad, the love of a patriot
for his or her country, love for a sibling – it’s
from God. How often we have misused and yes, even
destroyed that love - And the answer is: too many
times, but the love was real, even if we were not.
The “Deep
Cove Crier” of North Vancouver, BC (1993)
told of an incident in the life of Dr. Karl Barth, a
theologian, who, as the article states, was “one
of the most brilliant and complex intellectuals of
the twentieth century.” Barth wrote a large
number of volumes on the meaning of life and faith.
A reporter once asked him if he could summarize
what he had said in all those writings. Dr. Barth
thought for just a moment and then replied: “Jesus
loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so.”
God loves you, enabling you to love.
The response of
this brilliant man is WONDERFUL, for most “thinkers”
of Jesus’ time and ours, seem to think they have the
job of making everything so complicated that the
average person can’t understand what life and the
Lord are all about. The reality is that God has
made it EASY to see our need of the Lord and He has
shown us how to “find” Him in Christ Jesus. We
simply are to love and trust Him and receive His
love. Dr. Barth was so utterly right when he
responded, “Jesus loves
me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so.”
It’s so simple that a child can understand it,
which is precisely what Jesus had in mind when He
said, “Let the little
children come to Me, and do not forbid them, for OF
SUCH IS THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN” (Matthew
19:14). He also said, “unless
you are converted and BECOME AS LITTLE CHILDREN, you
will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven”
(Matthew 18:3). If you have never trusted in Him,
don’t let “fear”
stop you, for it “is the
beginning of knowledge” that leads us to
wisdom, to love and life everlasting.
To receive the
Lord simply and without unnecessary complications is
real life, and we are more like those “little
children” that Jesus spoke about than we care
to admit. We need Him. Jesus died for your sins
and has done His part. The Holy Spirit is revealing
your need right now, and He is doing His part. All
that’s left is your part – simply listen to the “horse
sense” of God’s Word and say “Yes” to the
Lord. Let’s pray:
Father, we ARE
that blind horse and You are the Good Master, who
sends us the help and love we need. We ARE “little
children” who need Your love. Forgive us for
the times we have not trusted in You. We come to
You in holy “fear”
and ask for the “horse
sense” to receive Your forgiveness, Your
love, right now. In Jesus Name. Amen.
