Out Our Way: Watch where we're going

Out our way, the hills are filled with various trails left by generations of deer, elk and more recently cattle. Now Charlie, who had worked herds all over Tiger Ridge, knew most of those trails up on the Tiger — and because he had real cow sense, he often could cut corners because he knew where the cattle on this or that trail were going to end up.

Although, as the beginner and rank amateur, I usually rode drag when we pushed a herd, now and then Charlie would let me ride swing and send me ahead to ensure the lead units stayed on the right trail. But as the trails crisscrossed and sometimes even back tracked a tad to get around some obstacle, he sent me cross country. That and the fact that a loping horse could panic some cattle and — depending how skittish they were after their time in summer or winter pasture when they tended to be left alone — that was just extra work we didn’t need to encourage.

Anyway, as I was not following the obvious trails but going cross country. Charlie would give me directions — pointing out land marks and also warning me of hazards up ahead.

“That low ridge to the right is the easiest way to get to the next turn in the trail, but cut across the backside of that first hill because the arroyo is damp and pretty deep mud this time of year. And when you get over the next rise, bear left because there is a Hawthorne patch there that will cut ‘Doc’ and you to shreds even with leather chaps.”

And Charlie’s directions always proved right on the money — not only showing me the best way to go, but warning me of the hazards that I could run into if I were not careful.

When I was young, I thought of the Lord’s Prayer in the Palestinian images of the shepherd Jesus used — but I think He is OK if instead of a Jewish shepherd, I now see a Montana cowboy … and especially my mentor, Charlie.

The Lord tells us, in His demonstration of how to pray to our Father to ask that He “lead us not into temptation.” And when I meditate on that passage I think of both Charlie’s directions AND his warnings. Christ tells us to follow Him … but often I find myself wanting to run ahead and cut my own trail. I anticipate where He is leading and assume I already know everything.

Charlie showed me the way to go — “we are heading over that rise to that butte ahead.” In that, he showed me the way — but not all of it. For the whole way was not straight, but required various twists and turns to avoid the bogs and the thorns and steep slopes no horse or cow could navigate in one piece. Thus he led me away from obstacles as well as toward the trail I was seeking.

That is what the Lord’s prayer is saying to us. “Help us Lord, to not only go the right way but also to listen to Your warnings and avoid the traps and dead ends that await the unwary.”

The Lord did not dig those quagmires that will bog us down, nor did He plant those thorn bushes that will entrap and cut us to shreds. But He knows who did and where they are. He will not lead us into these trials and temptations created to stop and destroy us, but will guide us away and around them IF we will mind His directions.

Most of the time on the Tiger I rode “drag” — the tail end of the herd. My task was to keep them moving and push them. But Charlie rode “point,” leading the way. The cattle that followed found the going easy and the way smooth. Those that did not, that broke away, if we could not catch them immediately, ended up in the Hawthorne patches and stuck in the muddy bottom. They were led away from the traps that tempted them, not by Charlie, but by their own stupidity and foolishness.

As the Lord does not lead us into temptation, so Charlie did not lead those foolish cows into the bogs and thorns. But also like the Lord, Charlie did not leave them there. For Charlie not only rode point — to guide the herd — but also sweep to go after the idiots and restore them to the way that lead to the good pasture and still waters they could not long survive without. And if a mere hired hand cared that much for a bunch of brain-dead cows, how much more does our Father in Heaven care about us?

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Brother John Bruington and Doc and Charlie openly share these horse sense theology ponderings to any and all who want them. Feel free to share with friends, neighbors, or even with other newspaper readers for as God has given so freely to us, so do we seek to give to others.