the horse whisperer

It's quite a while since I read the book "The Horse Whisperer".

But it came to mind today in the context of people I was seeing. It occurred to me that much of what I do has its parallels in that narrative.

OK, the book's about a horse. Well, a horse and a girl. And her mother. And I'm not really a 'horsey' sort of guy at all.

But in a way it's not so much about a horse as about a 'healing' that takes place. A horse being restored to the sort of life it was made for. A girl being enabled to do what she does best and what she's always yearned to do, but now is struggling to do.

Which is not a million miles from the nature of the ministry to which I'm called. To which, indeed, as followers of Jesus, we're all called.

This is what he does.

The whisperer. Whispering his gentle healing into the very depths nof our souls. Restoring, renewing our broken lives and making us whole again.

Enabling us to be the people God made us to be.

The horse, like the girl, was traumatised. The scars on the outside were mirrored by scars deeper down in the depths of the horse and the girl.

The unseen scars which stunted any growth and paralysed with fear.

Much of my time is spent with people like that. Perhaps not quite as dramatic always. But in essence just like that.

The 'horse whisperer' needed to learn, to understand the story of the trauma of the horse. He needed to get inside the horse's inner psyche, as it were, and understand the pain the horse had known.

You have to learn to listen if you're going to be a 'whisperer'.

So a lot of the time I'm simply trying to listen. And slowly, very carefully to get behind the layers of screens there are in people's lives and understand the 'traumas' that there have been.

I'm trying to listen to the subtext in the things that people say - and in the things they do not say as well. And I'm trying to listen, too, to what the Lord himself is 'whispering' through this.

It can be long and slow and hard.

Like it was tonight.

But I think there was a corner turned tonight. And seeing some folk being marvelously restored to who and what God purposed they should be, beyond their wildest dreams, is a very humbling privilege and a miracle of grace.

In a way, my whole day has been 'horse whispering' stuff. Not in an up-front, high profile way. Not in an overtly 'pastoral' sort of way.

But there are things going on in the life of God's people here and I'm trying to suss out what's going on. Trying to get behind the scenes, to reach into the murky depths of what the story really is about.

And starting to do the 'whispering'. Not just the patient 'listening', but the tentative steps which 'whispering' always involves. Starting to work on the issues there are.

And looking to God to be working the whole thing out. Resolving the issues. Restoring his people.

And refusing to settle for second best and accepting there's no way back.

Today that involved a fair amount of e-mail correspondence and a good few telephone calls. It involved as well a meeting with some folk who've been quite integral to all that's going on.

Off-site. Relaxed. Supportive and instructive.

Where we all, I suppose, were being helped, and maybe, too, more than a little healed, by our wonderful 'whispering' God, who loves to do far more than what we ask or dare to think.

Like the horse and the girl in the story, we shall rise and ride again.