That Some Day We May Ride Bare-back

To shrink back from all that can be called Nature into negative spirituality is as if we ran away from horses instead of learning to ride. There is in our present pilgrim condition plenty of room (more room than most of us like) for abstinence and renunciation and mortifying our natural desires. But behind all asceticism the thought should be, “Who will trust us with the true wealth if we cannot be trusted even with the wealth that perishes?” Who will trust me with a spiritual body if I cannot control even an earthly body? These small and perishable bodies we now have were given to us as ponies were given to schoolboys. We must learn to manage: not that we may some day be free of horses altogether but that some day we may ride bare-back, confident and rejoicing, those greater mounts, those winged, shining and world-shaking horses which perhaps even now expect us with impatience, pawing and snorting in the King’s stables. Not that the gallop would be of any value unless it were a gallop with the King; but how else—since he has retained his own charger—should we accompany him?

C.S. Lewis – From Miracles

2 Replies to “That Some Day We May Ride Bare-back”

  1. Reminds me of galloping on the Zomba plateau this last weekend on a sleek black mare called Zara with David our adopted Malawian son (aged 7) following on (he didn’t gallop). Trying to stay seated and enjoying the thrill of racing through a pine forest in dappled sunshine. Priceless.

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