Crow hopping

My first horse was a white gelding with splayed hooves from some previous pleasure and a limp from a wire cut on his left hock. Obviously, 7-Up had a mysterious prior life.

He had one pink eye and one with a black patch, like eyeliner. He was basically ugly but he made up for that by being pretty dense, too.

His focus for his day was eating hay and avoiding double riders by throwing out a little crow hop when my little sister climbed behind the saddle. (A crow hop happens when the horse bucks straight up.)

I thought that he’d be delighted to be with us after his dark past. We never allowed him to founder and we guarded him from any wire cuts. He was our first horse so he got lots of brushing and some apples on the side. There was always plenty of fresh water and lots of room to roll and run. He had a good life but he still crow hopped.

We came to God like 7-up came to us, a little beat up from our previous life, and we get treated pretty well. God gives us freedom and new life and hope. He loves us and shows us a better way.

And then we crow hop. We think he’s asking too much when he says something crazy like “If you love me, you will obey what I command.”

We think God is burdening us with his commands. But when we have an obedience problem, we really have a love problem.