Posts Tagged: free rein vs. free reign

On January 19, 2020 by Dteb With 0 Comments - down to earth believer

DTEB, “The Rider or the Horse?”

            “Be not like a horse or a mule, without understanding,

                        which must be curbed with bit and bridle,

                        or it will not stay near you.”

(Psalm 32:9 The Holy Bible, English Standard Version,

https://accordance.bible/link/read/ESVS#Psa._32:9.)

I’ve never been much of a horseman—except in my mind.  In my early horse-riding days, the horse would decide to go one direction, and I would go the other.  It was a mutual decision to part company, I suspect.

However, in my affirmation this morning, I used an equestrian metaphor.  Here is my affirmation:

“Today, by God’s grace, I am allowing God to have free rein in my life. God knows what I need to do and be far better than I know.”

Before I sent this affirmation to my sponsors, I decided to make sure that I was using the term correctly.  Is it free “rein” or free “reign”, for one thing”

It is often spelled free “reign”, but this is incorrect.  It is not a regal expression.  It is indeed an equestrian expression.

So far, so good.  I haven’t fallen off the semantic horse yet!

But one of my sponsors sent me a reply that caused me to dig a bit deeper.  He wrote, “A horse is a very graceful and trustworthy animal. A horse will follow its path home.”

My reply to his email was, “A good horse will.  I am slowly becoming a good horse.”

However, the more I’ve thought about it, the more inappropriate my affirmation has become.  The horse does not “give free rein” to the rider.  No!  The rider may (or may not) “give free rein” to the horse.  So, in the strictest sense of the expression, “to allow God to have free rein in my life” makes me the rider and God the horse.  I’m not so sure that is a good analogy for my relationship with God.

Psalm 32:9 states that God does not want us to be a like a horse that requires a bit and a bridle.  Apparently, God wants to be able to direct us without such tack.

Now the very fact that the psalmist—and God—speak to us in this manner suggests that we do often need a bit and bridle.  Any time that my wife says to me, “Don’t be like that!” it is because I am, in fact, being “like that.”

But God does not want it to be so.  God wants us to be so well trained that God can give us free rein.

Oh God, please love me into the kind of human horse you want me to be!

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