Out Our Way: I am not a tourist!

Out our way, there is many a time I wish I were an artist like Charlie Russell, for there are beauties in this place I simply cannot describe. There are moments of exquisite splendor that one has to experience personally to fully appreciate.

As I have mentioned before, there have been times when I was working at the H. Earl Clack Memorial Museum and tourists would come through unimpressed with the area.  “There’s nothing here,” they complain. How can I help them see what I see when they have no vision? The Hi-Line is not limited to U.S. Highway 2. But if they have not experienced a campfire in Beaver Creek, or walked the trails of the Bear Paw Mountains, if the closest they have ever come to sage is some air freshener, how can they know?

I tried carrying a camera one time when Charlie and I were pushing pairs on Tiger Ridge, but the photos just didn’t do it justice. How do you explain the incredible freedom of open country, a good horse and the sense of satisfaction as you move young calves and their mamas out of the brush and over grazed pasture to the new abundant grasslands and sweet water that is waiting just down the road? I can’t describe adequately that experience to someone who has never known 360 degrees of open country, has never seen a sunrise and a sunset from the same spot, has never smelled the sweet grass or been caught up in the drumming, singing and dancing of the powwow. Some things you just have to experience first hand. Sadly, I have also discovered there are people who may reside in Havre but are still just “tourists” because, while they may exist here, they don’t LIVE here. They haven’t embraced the fullness of this community and its heritage. 

I always felt sad for those folks who were in such a hurry to get somewhere else that they never had the chance to appreciate what was right in front of them. Oh, Glacier National Park is amazing — but so are the Bear Paws and the Sweet Grass Hills. You will not find the unique history of the 10th Colored Cavalry of Fort Assinniboine, characters like Long George Francis, Buckskin Mary or Shorty Young  up in the big tourist areas, nor will you  walk on and touch the soil and artifacts of 2,000-plus years ago at some big lodge in Glacier as you can at  the Wahkpa Chu’gn Buffalo Jump. This is not “Frontier Land” in some city amusement park — this is the real deal. And we who live here are given the chance to embrace it. How sad that so few do and remain not much more than tourists despite the fact they get to live here!

Over the years of my ministry I have discovered a great many folks in the church have the same problem. Although they may come to church every week, they never become a part of the heritage; they never become part of the Living Body of Christ. They are, essentially, only tourists. They are sight-seekers but not settlers — people who are just “passing through” but never settle down and begin to live the faith.  How sad!

For many, the beauty and depth of the faith is only a distant vision, much like the Bear Paws remain a beautiful but far off sight to those who never get off the highway. They can see it far off, but have never really explored or entered into it.   Faith is like a postcard — a two dimensional representation of a living breathing three-dimensional world.

A friend once asked me to tell her of the real Hi-Line. I told her to saddle up and come ride with me. I cannot explain or do justice to the magnificence of our home land.  I can only help you see and experience it for yourself. People will come to me and ask me to tell them of Christ and the Kingdom of God.I cannot adequately explain or describe it … you have to saddle up and come with me!

Ride the prairies of God’s Kingdom — feel the fresh wind (also translated as “spirit”) of God!   Smell the sweet grass and the sage of a new heaven and new earth being created right before you! I can’t describe that! I can’t paint that! I can only saddle up with you and let  you see for yourself!

Time to get off the concrete highway and onto the open range of God’s land where the sage blooms and the sweet grass perfumes the air and the water flows cool and pure. Saddle up this Sunday and ride with Your Lord, and discover the “Heavenly Hi-Line” that no mere tourist will ever know.  You are no tourist! You belong here! This is your home! Come and live in it!

  (John Bruington is pastor at First Presbyterian Church in Havre. Copies of his “Out Our Way” columns, “Bruin Town Tales” for children and sermons for maturing believers are available at http://ww.havrepres.org.)