A man has been lost and walking in the desert for about five days.
One hot day–actually, they’re all hot–he comes to the home of a
preacher. Tired and weak, he crawls up to the house and collapses on
the doorstep. The preacher takes him in and nurses him back to
health. Feeling better, the man asks the preacher for directions to
the nearest town. The preacher tells him the directions, and offers
to lend him his horse to make it. The preacher says, “However, there
is a special thing about this horse. You have to say ‘Thank God’ to
make it go and ‘Amen’ to make it stop.”
Anxious to get to town, the man says, “Sure, okay” and gets on the
horse. He says, “Thank God” and sho ’nuff, the horse starts walking.
A bit later he says louder, “Thank God, thank God,” and the horse
starts trotting. Feeling really brave, the man say, “Thank God! Thank
God! THANK GOD!” and the horse is soon up to a full run!
About then he realizes he’s heading for a huge cliff and
yells “Whoa!” But the horse doesn’t even slow! It’s coming up REAL
QUICK and he’s doing everything he can to make the horse stop. “Whoa,
stop, hold on!” Finally he remembers “AMEN!!!”
The horse stops a mere two inches from the cliff’s edge, almost
throwing him over its head. The man, panting and heart racing, wipes
the sweat from his face and leans back in the saddle. “Oh!” he says,
gasping for air, “Thank God.”