Faith Lessons from the Steeplechase of Life

Growing up around horses, I knew a thing or two about their traits and athletic abilities. You can catch a glimpse of that in a watercolor painting I completed when I was 11 years old. Using paint, a little water, and mostly dry brushes, I captured horses in a steeplechase, bounding over obstacles, and racing toward the finish line. As your eye follows the line of horses, each shows the sequence of moves necessary for any horse jumping over a hedge or fence. I was still a few years away from cantering my own horse Augie over jumps in the show ring, but already I appreciated the graceful flight of a horse and rider clearing one hurdle after another.

Horses are amazing animals. Take my thoroughbred Augie (short for St. Augustine). He was intuitive, responsive, and eager to please. Especially when we were competing in the show ring. He never questioned the confusing maze of hurdles set before him, all because he trusted me. As I guided him through a complex array of fences, he trusted that I would never ask him to jump something I knew he couldn’t handle. Over time, we had forged a relationship built on time, trust, and obedience. And so, when I reined him toward a high fence, Augie didn’t balk. He trusted the one who was holding his reins, and he was eager to do my will. Because of our unique relationship, it was rare that we didn’t win a ribbon. His willingness to tackle challenging hurdles served to show off his innate jumping ability and the rigorous training we’d undergone together.

Those days of show jumping with Augie often come to mind when I think about the confusing maze of things we all must hurdle. The obstacles, tests, and trials that God expects us to overcome seem so daunting and we wonder if the One holding the reins to our life knows what he’s doing! We view trials as perplexing detours from the way our life ought to be. Couldn’t God just steer us a little to the left and let us face something smaller? Or maybe avoid it altogether?

Yet the Bible tells us to consider trials with joy. How can this be?

Well, let me go back to Augie and me in the show ring. Every time that horse cleared a hurdle, every time he went straight for the fence and did not veer away; each time he did that, he made me, his rider look great. And in the same way, when we trust and obey God in the hardest of trials, we glorify him and make him look amazing in the eyes of others. James 1:2-3 instructs believers to “count it all joy” when they encounter various trials, because God has made it clear that the testing of their faith produces endurance and spiritual maturity which, in turn, brings great glory to God.

Every difficult situation I’ve encountered has been chosen by God as a way to prove his love to me and demonstrate his power to the watching world. Yes, it hasn’t been obvious in the moment. My broken neck and my chronic pain have at times caused me to question God’s motives and his goodness. Yet always, always, I have learned more of the depth of God’s love, seen more of his magnificent power, and experienced more of his compassionate grace in a way that keeps me from stumbling on the hedge of each trial.

Of course, I wasn’t thinking about all this back as an eleven-year-old kid, swirling my paintbrush in watercolors and marking steeplechase hurdles across the page. But looking at this painting reminds me that God has continued to build on the work he began in my life so long ago, and he will bring it to completion just as it says in Philippians 1:6: Being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day at of Christ Jesus.

And the blue ribbon I’m aiming for? Making my Savior, Christ Jesus, look amazing.

-Joni Eareckson Tada