Who is taking you for a ride?

"Any one can hold the helm when the sea is calm."

Publilius Syrus

Being in control over a situation is always easy when you know things are safe and carefree. I hear so many stories from people who tell me that life got hard when they least expected it. I have always felt that was a silly thing to say because you are never expecting it.

This got me thing that sometimes maybe you are.

When you know bad things are going to happen in a situation, however horrible that situation then seems, is sometimes easier to cope with, you can almost control what is coming head on. But the moment you stop taking control of life and let go of what is steering you, because you think that everything will be good, you are more likely to steer in to trouble. You need to have a clear focus on who is guiding you, and then when the trouble or burdens come your way you have an emergency back up to help you out.

When I was a child I use to really enjoy going to the seaside with my mum and dad. It was such a lovely event, as long as there was good weather in the sky there was something I use to really enjoy seeing, and when I was really young (and well-behaved) something that I really would enjoy doing, going on the seaside Donkey ride!

It sounds strange to people who are not use to this custom, but going to a British Sandy Beach in the height of summer and seeing a Donkey/Donkeys on the beach, letting the children ride them up and down, was sheer excitement for me. You would usually see 6 to 8 donkeys lined up in a row on the beach and depending on the type of people running the event you would have a variety of Donkeys, each possibly with a specific, yet funny name, and some dressed up or even wearing hats.

This has been a British tradition since Victorian time, with a recorded start in 1790 at Margate, in Kent, although I am sure it was going on before then. This seaside event has become less popular over the years, I would assume mainly because of the cruelty aspect of using animals in this way. However you can still find these events at more popular seaside resorts. You would queue up, along the "carpet" track, looking for the most brightly coloured donkey, or the donkey with the best name (The names were clearly on show, they would usually be put across the saddle and then highlighted on the donkey's harness and reigns.

But now as an adult I see the whole thing slightly differently. When you think about it, this little adventure for the children puts the adults in a strange position. The Donkey, although apparently a docile creature, is still an animal and all animals are spontaneous, with anything able to happen at any moment. So realistically we are putting a child, our child, aged below 8 (usually) on the back of this animal is rather careless. Especially when you consider the height that the child could fall from. But come on, I must be ridiculous and completely overreacting here, realistically it should be OK, when we then see two things in front of us.


1: The Donkey has reigns on, so we must assume that there is a certain amount of control over the animal.


2: That the Donkey is controlled by the person who is walking a long side them. So again, we must assume that it is safe for our children to ride as there is control over the situation.


But could the Donkey still lose control?

Yes, of course it could, the Donkey could kick or run. Especially when you see the previous points differently, when you look at the reigns that the Donkey has on, if it was completely safe and controlled then you wouldn't need the reigns, but the real truth is that it is still an unpredictable animal.


But the next important thing is the person, the Donkey guide, we don't know these people, these people are complete strangers, yet we are happy to pass these people our child, to man handle.

When we send children to school we, as a society, are completely obsessed with what is best for our children, what is the best and safest! We become obsessed with Ofsted reports and qualifications of staff. When our child becomes sick, automatically Doctors have to be the best in the country to even be considered to look after your children. Yet when it comes to Donkey rides at the beach, we are happy to allow complete strangers to look after our young child. We allow them to pick up and put our Child on to a Donkey, without even checking if they are C.R.B checked, or have childcare regulations, are they first aid trained? Are the animals checked and treated by the R.S.P.C.A? But yet they go and walk the Donkey up and down the beach with a child, our child, sat on a flimsy but incredibly colourful saddle.


Now, as a parent I am in two minds, I would love my two boys, when they are older, to go on to the beach and ride a Donkey up and down it. It is fun and exciting for the first few times that you do it. Yet, my children are also my most precious and valuable items that I “posses”. I would die for them without any hesitation. So when my two boys go to the beach and go for their Donkey ride I will be looking at the two points raised earlier, the Donkey and the Donkey guide. The Donkey is carrying the most precious thing in the world to me, but is also carrying the weight of my son and the saddle that is on its back. (One of hundreds I am sure the Donkey has or would have done that summer)

The weight must be a burden.

Then the Guide now has taken that burden of responsibility. That is a lot of responsibility, but is so easily given over. But in reality, we as humans do this time and time again.


But when we look at the Donkey, it always looks very sweet and nice. We never really hear any stories of Donkeys attacking children. And at times I have even seen Donkeys wearing cute little hats (which I am pretty sure is probably against the law now) saying "Kiss me quick" or some other seaside slogan. So we look on at these animals and at this stranger and look around and are drawn in to the world of Donkey rides, with Donkeys that look trust worthy because they are wearing a hat!

Sadly, we are often the Donkeys in this scenario, mainly due to the fact that we are carrying these very heavy burdens. We are so use to carrying something that is precious to us, however irrelevant they might be to others, of which the precious load; the load that we want to protect is sometimes the heaviest. We as a society find it easy to pile on more precious items for others to carry. We are plodding along with our normal burdens, our normal loads, continuing with our normal lives our normal jobs, which is never easy. It isn't like we were designed to carry extra jobs, loads and burdens to carry and then for us to comfortably walk on hot sand. But alas, we still do it, we dress ourselves up, sometimes sparkle, pushing our pride out, with our pride on show, our name on show. But only because it is who we are, and what is expected from us, however hard we carry on plodding along.

But it is hard, so we need a good Donkey guide, someone reliable, even if they appear to be complete strangers to the on lookers. In reality the Donkey knows the guide. The guide would have handled, fed, groomed and cared deeply for these animals (even if the only reason for doing so was just so they could make money from them, but none the less they are cared for) So, for the donkey, however much it is expected from him, and us, the truth for him should be that the people queuing up to "burden" him more are probably the strangers, putting even more precious items on them to carry.

So, if you are buying this analogy and are following with what I have been saying the question then to be raised is, if you are you Donkey, who is your Guide?

This is such an important role, because they wont just care and look after you in the winter months when things seem easier, they will also be on the beach, in the hot weather helping you walk, whilst they hold on to your reigns.

Ideally I would say allow God to be your guide, let Him get a firm grip on your reigns, but the truth is that He already is.

We all know the lovely footprints in the sand poem but if you don't, I will briefly outline it here, but I would recommend you actually find it and read it: A person has been promised that if he follows God, God will always walk with Him. He is walking on sand and occasionally there are two sets of foot prints, and at other times there is only one pair. The person questions it to God, accusing Him of leaving him, but God points out that He was actually carrying the person in that time and is why there is only one set of footprints. This would help me think that God is the person that has a good grip on your reigns, who is always your guide, even when you think otherwise.

But we sometimes break free.

The problem comes though when you end up being burdened by others, and they start to guide your actions and choices, because you are carrying something that although might be irrelevant to you, it is also precious to them. So these people take charge, you allowing them to take control stops your guide, when it should be God. This is really the concept of giving authority. We should at all times acknowledge that God and Jesus are Authority over all, but the moment you let someone else take charge you are then allowing them to have Authority over you.

In a few of the Gospels we see that Jesus restores a demon possessed man. This shows ideally the concept of allowing others to take over our lives.

Taken from Mark 5 we see that Jesus got out of a boat with his disciples following him, a man at the time called Legion was possessed with an evil Spirit or Demon. Legion came running from the tombs and “prison” where he was kept to meet him. No one in the neighbouring village could help him and stop Legion from doing horrendous things, not even when they tried to bind him with a chain. No one was strong enough to subdue him. When he saw Jesus from a distance, Legion fell to his knees in front of him. He started to shout at the top of his voice, “What do you want with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? In God’s name don’t torture me!” When Jesus had said to him, “Come out of this man, you impure spirit!”

This next point I find really interesting, Legion begged Jesus again and again not to send them out of the area. Jesus, taking pity cast them into some neighbouring pigs, but ultimately Jesus gave them permission, then Legion came out and went into the pigs.

The man that was possessed had someone else taking control of his actions, to the point that Legion became powerful, we see this in the way that the neighbouring villagers could subdue or control him and even then they ultimately buckled and allowed him to live on the outskirts, chained very poorly. The possessed mans authority was no longer in God; the Demon was currently guiding his actions. God seemingly was no longer in control. But what we do see is that the authority is always left with Jesus. Legion recognised this, recognised the power that was within him, why else would he have begged the way he did.

And then the most important part, Jesus cast him out with HIS permission.

Showing that His authority is the highest and actually however much something else takes control he is the person who is guiding you.

So think about the winter months in your life, when you are not carrying others burdens. Who is feeding, grooming, giving you somewhere to sleep and comes and sees you everyday? Ultimately remember that this person is standing there with Authority to guide you correctly.

So next time you are at the beach and you see donkeys lined up or walking up and down the beach think. Even, if you are lucky enough to be the parent holding the reigns of the donkey that your child is riding, the Stranger that is standing a few feet from you, walking with you, is also walking with their precious load.