Where would we be without trust?
Everyday we exercise the concept of trust. Take the simple routine of breakfast in the morning. we trust that the electricity will work to boil the kettle, we trust that the chair that we sit on wont collapse from beneath us and we trust that the cereal we eat hasn't been poisoned by a madman in the Kelloggs factory! Yes, trust can be easy sometimes and we aren't even aware we are doing it. However there are sometimes areas in our lives where trust has been broken, then trust can turn into a huge wall that we cant seem to overcome. Usually this breaking of trust is linked to people and relationships.
When trust is broken 3 things normally happen. First we start to let doubt and suspition rule our thoughts about the people involved or the circumstance we are in. Then usually pain, disappointment and a feeling of loss follows, and finally, bitterness and sometimes even revenge takes the place where trust once resided. Funny thing is, if the chair at breakfast happened to break, leaving us sprawled out on the floor...... well we would simply get up and fix it!
I have discovered over the years that a word that seems to work well with trust is 'surrender'. A few years ago a friend had a horse out west that needed to be broken in. Promise, a two and a half year old chestnut filly, had been out on a property and had hardly ever been handled. We had 4 days to gain her trust and float her 9 hours back to my place where she could continue her training. After herding her in from the big paddock and securing her in the round yard, the 'earning trust' process began. First came the trust of touch...... that magical moment when after what seemed like hours of work, the halter was slipped onto her face and she followed her owner around the yard.
Then came the trust of having boundries, where Promise had to learn to be tied to a fence. The fight, struggle and exhaustion in this process seemed to last forever. Promise's trust was not going to come easy and we were running out of time. We had to do something drastic to gain total surrender or Promise would never agree to walking onto the confined space of the float. Trust with horses is best established over time, however that luxury is not always available.
Finally on the last day we decided to try something my friend had seen demonstrated once by a trainer. Promise was led into a small yard, a rope was slipped around her front leg as she started to move around, the whites of her eyes indicated that trust was still some distance away. It took a couple of attempts and some effort but the end result saw Promise laying on her side on the ground. That's when the ultimate act of trust and surrender was linked ..... Promise was covered with a tarp. While my friend lay beside her, talking and reassuring, this beautiful filly relaxed and learned to trust her owner. It was amazing to see and of course I don't recommend it to anyone unless you have years of horse experience and training.
From then on Promise was a different horse, we travelled the long trip home trouble free and the rest of Promise's training was relatively easy.
So sometimes it is fear that can cause us not to trust .... Fear of the unknown, fear of the past, fear of the future, fear of failure, fear of being rejected or let down. Surrender unlocks fear and sometimes we need to take extreme measures to overcome what's holding us back. Kind of like the skydiver who is about to jump so he can overcome his fear of heights. In Vanuatu I once held a spider the size of a saucer in the palm of my hand, just to overcome my fear of them. After five minutes I had got quite friendly and even given him a name!

Dealing with horses is a good practise ground when learning to exercise trust. My horse Cruz will buck in the middle of a barrel race if I don't warm him up properly... not a real confidence builder, but I have learn't to break that fear pattern with warm up laps. Of course not everything always goes to plan and when it doesn't go the way I imagined, I try not to become disacouraged, cause that is when throwing trust out the window is so easy. Instead, I take the positive out of the attempt and view it as a slow process, not a quick fix. This can also be applied when learning to trust people again. Always remember, that ultimetly we only have control over our own words and actions, we have no control what others say or do. However, the ball is always in our court on how we respond!
Finally, know that we can always trust God, prayer is both powerful and comforting. Sometimes His answer is not what we are expecting, but trust that He has everything in control.
At breakfast I never stop and panic that the earth will fall from the universe..........I just trust that He has it held in place each and every day.
“To be trusted is a greater compliment than being loved.”
George Macdonald

Joey with her beautiful mare Promise.... a special moment joining surrender and love.

Quite silly or Common sense?
Recently while travelling in the United States with my daughter, Katie, we drove by a huge prison out in the middle of nowhere; which happened to be a high security place.
Home to some of the state's worst-behaved inmates, L imon Correctional Facility is just one step down from the maximum-security prison at Cañon City and it averages twice as many assaults by inmates on staff as other Colorado prisons.
It was very obvious with the guard towers and barbwire , that this was a dangerous area. Yet down the road we came across a sign which we had a laugh at.
NOTICE
Correctional Facility
Do not stop for hitchikers.
We were like "YOUR KIDDING...as if we need to be told that. Who would pick up a hitchiker in the States anyway, let alone here?" At the time Katie and I thought that sign was quite silly to be overstating the obvious. However, since being home I came across the photo Katie took and it got me thinking just how sensible it really was. I realised that everyone is not the same; different cultures, different levels of education and different thoughts on what would be common sense. What might not even be considered by one person as common sense would be simple to another.
This reminded me of just how unique and individual we all are; not only genetically but how we are raised, where we live and what we believe all add to our uniqueness. Just the fact that everyones fingerprints are not the same is truely amazing. My initial reaction to that sign was, "you'd have to be stupid to not know that, especially someone wearing a orange jumpsuit!", but now I realize how someone could very easily not sense the danger.
So this small sign, on the side of the road, out in the middle of Colorado somewhere, has caused me to reassess my tolerance of people who are different from me. I need to understand that not everyone thinks the same, feels the same or acts the same, and that lack of tolerance, patience and understanding has caused a lot of trouble in the world over the years. God intended for us all to be unique so we can fulfill different roles in society, family and life in general.
We need to also understand that all horses are not the same and that so much patience and understanding is required when working with them. One horse might learn something extremely quick while another might struggle to pick it up. One week a horse might be calm and sensible, not putting a foot wrong...... the next week that same horse will act like it has never been ridden. Legendary 11- time World Champion Barrel Racer, Charmayne James paid $150,000 to clone the most famous barrel horse of all, Scamper.  On Aug 8th, a foal named Clayton was born, and even though they both have the same cells and genetics, Charmayne realises the foal might not be a champion and has decided not to race him. Charmayne will instead breed him and develope a line of barrel horses that will hopefully have some of Scamper's talent for running the clover leaf pattern. So not even cloning can overide what enviroment and relationships shape us to be.  It is amazing how our equine buddies moods, fears and emotions can be so humanlike and how we respond is the key to bonding our relationship with them.
Uniqueness is really an extroidinary gift that God has given to the world. One of my favorite sayings is........t here but for the grace of God go I . Which means that the homeless person, irritating boss, frustrating friend, unforgiving ex spouse, wayward teenager, unloving parent or even the cruel hostile prisoner in Limon prison........all could have been me under different circumstances. So extend God's grace to someone today.
Till next time
Godspeed.