[Horse, 2008, JAVanDevender]
Jeremiah 10:23-24 O LORD, I know the way of man is not in himself; It is not in man who walks to direct his own steps. O LORD, correct me, but with justice; Not in Your anger, lest You bring me to nothing.
Once upon a time in a land far, far away... namely my childhood in that "other" world of the 1950's, there existed something called "Blue Horse" notebooks, pads of paper, and all kinds of other materials to purchase for school supplies. (You can see what I am talking about HERE) If you cut out the "Blue Horses" and saved them up into packs of ten and fifty, you could send them off for various prizes and more stuff. It was all great fun and little raggedy-muffin, bare-foot kids could daydream about saving up enough to get a bicycle, or a Stan Musial fielder's glove, or some other treasure, of which the combined total of coupons would require schooling through graduate levels at college to save up. But, daydreams are supposed to be fantasies. Mostly, we wound up settling for pencils or erasers or something similar. But the old memories are sweet and the image above is not too far removed from that which was on the coupons.
Other than the nostalgic tug though, the aspect of this image that drew me to it was the halter. Here is a very nice horse, of much superior strength than a man, and yet, subject to man's leading. Pull on the halter and the horse follows. That is the nature of the horse (at least most of them), that is the way of the world of horses.
Jeremiah is not thinking of horses though. He is thinking of you and me. 'The way of man is not in himself; it is not in man who walks to direct his own steps." (cf. Proverbs 16:9, 20:24). Our lives unfold before us in increments: moments, hours, days, weeks, years. In each of these instances we deal with whatever lies before us. We move, we react, we plan, we consider, we talk, we sulk, etc. Our individual nature responds to the challenges of the moment and we exercise our "free will" in accordance with the impulses and desires and considerations which arise from the often competing tendencies that lie within us.
Alexander Pope was a great poet.... he described us this way: "Chaos of thought and passion, all confused..." That's pretty accurate when we get right down to it. Yet, we bumble along and do what we do and reap what we sow. From our perspective, it is OUR life and with more or less heat, we insist upon that notion.
Yet, it is one of the great humbling discoveries of life, the beginning of true wisdom, to discover that such is not a true depiction. The world is not filled with endless possibilities all awaiting our puny choices in fulfillment. For all our relative strengths within the created order, yet, sinner and saint, we are all haltered and led. We pass on this stage, play the assigned role we have been given from all eternity to play, and exit stage right or left into the curtains of history. God leads us so deftly that we don't even feel the bit between our teeth.
Are we mere automatons? Far from it, and this is not the medium for an extended defense or development of the thought. All that is important now is the comfort of the idea for my purposes here.
To know... to really know... that my life cannot fail means a lot. To know, that God is directing my steps such that the part I play in the comedy of life will be meaningful and efficiently arranged to do that which God from all eternity intended for me (Eph. 2:10), is the most freeing doctrine of personal theology that I can imagine. Whether I strive and fail miserably according to my plans, or stumble into some good fortune and by seeming "good luck" have a huge impact in some way... all are so arranged, and so coordinated that not one measure of energy is wasted.
God is in His Heaven... He has not abandoned me, or you, or this world. No matter how we strive we can never break the bonds of His Sovereignty in all things. What a relief!
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