Saddle Up Your Horses and Get Ready to Ride – the Ride of Your Life!

Saddle Up Your Horses – It's the Ride of Your Life!

By: Susan Deborah Schiller

I can honestly say it's all been worth it. I'm the happiest I've ever been in my life. I'm learning to ride in this great frontier of spiritual freedom and rest.

Many of us, over the past 1-2 decades, have laid down our active ministries and have answered the call to freedom. We've slowly learned to rest… to be still and know that God is God and we are not. Frankly, it's been the hardest training I've received.

In laying my ministry on the altar, everything else went up in smoke, too. Steven Curtis Chapman wrote, "The Great Adventure," nearly about the same time that I heard Papa God's call to lay down my life… to exchange my own plans for His. I'll share some of his poetic words here…

Saddle up your horses

Started out this morning in the usual way
Chasing thoughts inside my head of all I had to do today
Another time around the circle try to make it better than the last

I opened up the Bible and I read about me
Said I'd been a prisoner and God's grace had set me free
And somewhere between the pages it hit me like a lightning bolt
I saw a big frontier in front of me and I heard somebody say "let's go"!

CHORUS
Saddle up your horses we've got a trail to blaze
Through the wild blue yonder of God's amazing grace
Let's follow our leader into the glorious unknown
This is a life like no other – this is The Great Adventure

Come on get ready for the ride of your life
Gonna leave long faced religion in a cloud of dust behind
And discover all the new horizons just waiting to be explored
This is what we were created for…  (Source)

The Great Adventure

For me, the great adventure first began when I was 18-years old and I heard Barry McGuire sing, "The Cosmic Cowboy" on the 700 Club. I felt myself taking the imaginary (yet real) leap, right over the edge of a huge cliff into His arms. It's been a series of leaps of faith, ever since.

I never realized this great adventure would take me to a real ranch in Wyoming and that I would learn to Cowgirl Up! Some of the greatest life lessons I've learned were discovered on that ranch.

All I know is that Papa God is the greatest rancher I've ever met and His ranch extends throughout the whole universe! We get to ride with Him because this is where He wants us – right beside Him as He leads us over the highest mountains and through the lowest valleys.

So many friends I know are suffering deeply today… physical ailments, sorrow and grief, parenting challenges, recovery from abuse, and more. There's only one thing I know, and that true love prevails.

Whether you're climbing up the mountain today or descending into a valley, there is provision for every problem. The Holy Spirit is our guide on this trail, and He's training us to grin in the face of disaster. I think that's why I've gone through so many trials… because it took me such a great while to learn how to grin when bad things happened. I don't mean that we should be happy about bad things… but that we can be excited to see the provision – the double blessing – that is coming to our loved ones and us, in the unusual guise of a problem.

When we take the time to write down our stories and to share them, the next generation is blessed. This is one big reason why I write!

The picture of the little girl riding a horse named Beau at the top of this page is my granddaughter, Danielle, during the time I co-managed the ranch. It was her very first ride all by herself. There's nothing greater in this world than sharing the great adventure with your family and friends!

I'd love for you to share your story of the great adventure – of a time in your life when you discovered a particular truth or learned a great lesson! I'm collecting 100 Stories as part of a project to spark Hope for Survivors!

Thanks for being here today. Thank you for listening and I hope you will share in the comment boxes provided on most of these pages… I love to hear from you!

Choosing love today,

Sue

Susan Schiller knows how it feels to lose everything: marriage and family, church and reputation, finances and businesses, and more. Susan's upcoming, interactive memoir, "On the Way Home," tells the story of how she came to be known as "the most abused woman" her counselors had yet met and how she learned to navigate her way out of hell to a rich and satisfying life. In her lifetime, Susan has served in duties ranging from home school mom – to pastor –  to full-time deliverance minister – and to Midwest regional prayer coordinator for a large international ministry. These days you can usually find Susan soaking in her favorite hot springs pool, reading a book (or several), blogging, baking bread, or hanging out with her family and friends. You can get a free copy of Susan's upcoming book, "On the Way Home" by registering here.

Copyright 2013, Susan Schiller, http://TeamFamilyOnline.com. Permission is granted to copy, forward, or distribute this article for non-commercial use only, as long as this copyright byline and bio, in totality, is maintained in all duplications, copies, and link references.  For reprint permission for any commercial use, in any form of media, please contact Susan Schiller.

Tagged as: "Love from Papa" Series, Choosing Love Today, Deborah White Dove, Getting Your Life Back, Unbuckle Your Christianity