Run with the Horses – The Quest for Life at Its Best

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Before it ever crossed our minds that God might be important, God singled us out as important. Before we were formed in the womb, God knew us. We are known before we know.

We also keep going after these moving carrots. And they are Many. So we’re really pulling the crafty old man... the Economy. And the ever-moving Carrot! I didn’t read it that way, however. I rushed to meet a deadline, and I feel like I missed a whole lot. At the same time, I do think it was hard to find the through-line, and I wish Peterson had done a better job of regularly orienting his reader to his larger intentions. It all felt slightly disconnected and honestly a bit overzealous at times. Lester has created a picture book that successfully marries fiction with history, giving young readers a glimpse of the dangers of the War as well as the bravery that it created. Nina is a ten-year-old whose care for her horse and courage during the adventure will inspire. The book does have more text than many picture books, making it more appropriate for a slightly older audience, one which is more likely to understand the historical aspect of the book better as well. In crowds the truth is flattened to fit a slogan…The crowd makes spectators of us, passive in the presence of excellence or beauty. The crowd makes consumers of us, inertly taking in whatever is pushed at us. As spectators and consumers the central and foundational elements of our being human—our ability to create, our drive to excel, our capacity to commune with God—atrophy” (135). And it doesn’t matter if the weather forecast is calling for Slings & Arrows of Outrageous Fortune... We have to get in that old jalopy of ours - and DRIVE IT IN THE WIDE OPEN AIR OF EVERYDAY LIFE!

It is, of course, far easier to languish in despair than to live in hope, for when we live in despair we don't have to do anything or risk anything. We can live lazily and shiftlessly with an untarnished reputation for practicality, current with the way things appear. It is fashionable to espouse the latest cynicism. If we live in hope, we go against the stream. Read more at location 1609 Run with the Horses is a study in the life of Jeremiah. Peterson follows the book of Jeremiah covering every major event with his attempt at making the life of a prophet the standard for normal Christian life. The admirable goal of the author is made stronger by the character and text which was chosen. Prophecy books are some of the most underused Scriptural texts. Prophets by their very nature are considered mostly unrelatable and outcast from mainstream society. The result is a study which pulls the average Christian into a world unlike the norm with challenges such as dedication to God, risks of hope and boldness in faith. We’re on the New Road that Goes On Forever. And the NEW, Spiritual carrots we’ve found are delicious - and they fill us with good things. And so when Jacob and his friends arrive at Mount Zion’s peak... oh, the joyful celebration - pipes and timbrels everywhere, the dancers, the Freedom! All the same, we continue to have an unquenchable thirst for wholeness, a hunger for righteousness. When we get thoroughly disgusted with the shams and cretins that are served up to us daily as celebrities, some of us turn to Scripture to satisfy our need for someone to look up to. What does it mean to be a real man, a real woman? What shape does mature, authentic humanity take in everyday life?

But before we let them go, I have a few things to say to them. The rest of you can listen in to what I have to say here this afternoon. So to the Ambassador Bible College class of 2017, let's get right to the point. At ABC this year, I gave you three keys to success at ABC. Show up and know your lines. Get engaged. We don't mean this kind, although that might happen for a few. And thirdly, to take notes on the world; there will be a test. And you honored me by giving me a gift the other night with those three sayings etched on glasses, and they will take an honored place in my man cave and I will appreciate that very much.

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I stake the future on the few humble and hearty lovers who seek God passionately in the marvelous, messy world of redeemed and related realities that life in front of our noses. William McNamara[1]

We all get tired of not getting something out of the good we do. People won’t often tell us how much our kind words, good deeds and warm gestures of affection really MEAN to them, you know. Life is rich, life is beautiful, life is challenging, and life sometimes will be difficult. But as you leave Ambassador Bible College with your Bibles marked, colored, margins full of notes, know that that is but the first step in the long process of God writing His Word on your heart. You are the eighteenth class to graduate at Ambassador Bible College. From this day forward, we will see you really as a picture on our hallway out here. Now, we're going to pass your picture a dozen times a day. Occasionally, we'll pause and we'll look at your class picture. Wse'll look and we'll remember. What might we remember about the class of 2017?You see, don’t you, that Jeremiah’s stories were Spirit-filled, and THE SPIRIT WAS JEREMIAH’S NEW CARROT? It’s that simple. The aim of the person of faith is not to be as comfortable as possible but to live as deeply and thoroughly as possible-to deal with the reality of life, discover truth, create beauty, act out love. Read more at location 1368 Any part of our lives that is turned over to the crowd makes it and us worse. The larger the crowd, the smaller our lives…If we can’t do it well, we make it larger. We add dollars to our income, rooms to our houses, activities to our schedules, appointments to our calendars. And the quality of life diminishes with each addition. Apart from the before, the now has little meaning. The now is only a thin slice of who I am; isolated from the rich deposits of before, it cannot be understood. location 300 What you will see through reading Run With The Horses, is how Eugene took biographical parts of the book of Jeremiah and reflected on them personally and pastorally in the context of present, everyday life. What he finds is the only way that any of us can live our best is in a life of radical faith in God. “It is not enough to be in the right place; it is not enough to say the right words, it is never enough until we are walking with God twenty-four hours a day everywhere we go, with everything we say as an expression of love and faith.” He says, “We need to be stretched out of dull moral habits, shaken out of pretty and trivial busy work. Where we are and will be is compounded with who God is and what He does…Before Jeremiah knew God, God knew Jeremiah…Our lives are not puzzles to be figured out. Rather, we come to God, who knows us and reveals to us the truth of our lives. The fundamental mistake is to begin with ourselves and not God. God is the center from which all life develops.”