The Grass Really is Greener on the other Side

As I was scrubbing feed buckets covered with spiders and all the little packages of fast-food flies wrapped in silk to-go boxes, I saw another volunteer at His Barn walk by leading a pony by his chin. The black pony had no halter or lead rope. He followed obediently, like a dog being pulled by his ruff.

Then she walked him to the front yard, the unfenced front yard with a road in front of it, and let him loose. I stood up, shocked.
"Wait... do you mean to let him loose? I mean with no tie or anything?"
Jill, the owner, was off on a trail ride with Asherel while I did my little corner of work to help her out.
The volunteer nodded, "Yes, he just stays."
"But how?"
"Oh he's trained."

Jack, the pony went right to work mowing the lawn. Jill runs the barn on her own with an assortment of volunteers. There is never enough money or hours in the day to do all that is required. I was happy to see she had found a time saving method of keeping her lawn cut.

The sky became dangerously dark, and just as my daughter's group returned, the heavens let loose, and rain gushed from the sky.  Jack came slowly back to the barn and peered in.
"What do you think you are doing?" asked Jill.
Jack looked at his stall, his forelock dripping.
"You aren't done with your job yet," said Jill.
Jack turned and went back to mowing the lawn.
"Doesn't he go in the road?" I asked.

Jack was meandering towards the road. He stood at the side of it and looked back.
JIll watched him.
"No, not unless I am inside and then sometimes I will see him look at the house, and make sure I am not around and then he will cross it."
I watched Jack. The grass on the other side of the road really was greener, and tall, and lush.
"How did you train him to do this?" I asked.
"I made it very unpleasant for him when he stepped in the road, banging pans, yelling, screaming, making noise. And as soon as he stepped back on the yard, I made it quiet and peaceful.It's all about pressure and then removing pressure in training a horse."

I remembered that morning with my Science Olympiad kids. I had invited them out for an afternoon of kayaking as a celebration/thank you for all their hard work this year. I had enough kayaks between our inflatable ones and hard shells for all the kids to be able to kayak together. I was the kayak cop, in my beloved little inflatable. When I saw them bumping each other, and  (in my eyes) tipping perilously as they grabbed at each others' boats, I made a lot of noise. I was employing Jill's horse training method.
"No bashing into each other, and no grabbing each other's boats!" I shrieked, "Those are the rules. If  you follow the rules, I will follow far far behind you. If you don't follow the rules, I will be right on your tail."

They weren't pleased that I was preventing their escalating attempts to dislodge each other into the lake of snapping turtles, but they had no desire for me to be bobbing in their midst either. So they obeyed the rules. They knew the grass was greener on the other side of the rules, but since I was in sight, they thought it best to obey.

But I kept thinking last night about Jack the pony. Well-trained as he is, even a pony figures out that when the Master is not around, he can cross the road to the greener grass. He knows it is wrong, but the enticement is too strong, the scent of the succulent thick grass too overpowering.  Similarly, I have little doubt that if I left those kayaking kids and said, "I am off to go get a pedicure, see you in two hours", every one of them would soon be upturned in the lake with half their toes nibbled off by the snapping turtles.

It is almost impossible to resist the siren call of the forbidden. This is a lesson Adam and Eve learned to their most unhappy rebuke. The most ironic thing of that whole Garden of Eden thing is that they knew God was watching.... that God is always watching.  Even Jack the pony checks to make sure Jill isn't there before he crosses the line. It really is hopeless, if we are forced to depend on ourselves. Who of us can deny cheesecake sitting on the counter, no matter how many caloric and cholesterol warning signs are posted? Or any host of forbidden sins? It is easy to point fingers at the "idiots" who come out of lung cancer treatment and light up a cigarette as soon as they leave the hospital....but how about at myself, when I speak a harsh word to a loved one, or gossip, or cling selfishly to my possessions (like my beloved kayak that I won't let anyone else get in......)?  Why is it so hard to be obedient?

As Jack mowed the lawn, Jill told me she had been through a year of very pressing medical issues with Jack. She had been with him night and day through many bouts of colic.
"We formed such a relationship that honestly, if he turned around and started speaking to me, I would not be surprised."
That, I thought, that is the key. Not making noise, or rules, or even dire repercussions, but forging a relationship so based on love and care that hearts long to beat only in rhythm with their Master. We obey because we love, and we know that to disappoint the One who cares for us above all else is not worth any pleasure, not even lush, green, glorious grass.
 Jack glanced at Jill and moved away from the road.

1 Corinthians 4

 ¹ This, then, is how you ought to regard us: as servants of Christ and as those entrusted with the mysteries God has revealed. ² Now it is required that those who have been given a trust must prove faithful. ³ I care very little if I am judged by you or by any human court; indeed, I do not even judge myself. ⁴ My conscience is clear, but that does not make me innocent. It is the Lord who judges me. ⁵ Therefore judge nothing before the appointed time; wait until the Lord comes. He will bring to light what is hidden in darkness and will expose the motives of the heart. At that time each will receive their praise from God.