I went with some of the family yesterday to see Secretariat. The story covered a period of three years and a bit. I was thrown back in time by the music and the clothes (oh, those plaid slacks) and the hippies and protest marches. I can't believe how young I was in 1970! Those kids on the screen could have been me. Oh, mercy!
At the start of the film, in a voiceover, Diane Lane, as the character of Penny, quotes some verses from the Book of Job, and from those words on, I felt the thunder of horse's hooves in my chest, all the way through the movie. I love horses. Always have. My mom always said my first word was "horse," and only after that came "mama." Yeah, that's probably true.
Anyway, here are the words from Job that were in the film:
Do you give the horse his might?
Do you clothe his neck with a mane?
Do you make him leap like the locust?
His majestic snorting is terrible.
He paws in the valley, and rejoices in his strength;
He goes out to meet the weapons.
He laughs at fear and is not dismayed;
And he does not turn back from the sword.
The quiver rattles against him,
The flashing spear and javelin.
With shaking and rage he races over the ground,
And he does not stand still at the voice of the trumpet. (Job 39:19-24)
Wow! I will never read those words again without thinking of a race horse like Secretariat, pounding his way around a track. They truly are one of God's most beautiful creations. And they run because God made them to run. I want to be like that. I want to do what God made me to do. I don't want to stand still at the voice of the trumpet. I want to laugh at fear and not be dismayed. Hallelujah!
If you haven't seen this film, I want to encourage you to do so. We all know that Hollywood isn't always welcoming to Christians or to those with conservative values. Well, I'm told that Secretariat's director, Randall Wallace (We Were Soldiers, The Man in the Iron Mask), and the writer, Mike Rich (The Nativity Story, Finding Forrester) are believers. We need to support them at the box office, vote with our wallets. And besides that, it is just plain a great story. If you don't know the story of this most amazing super horse, you need to see it for that reason alone.
And I know you are dying to see those plaid slacks the guys were wearing in the 70's. Right?
~robin
