OUT OUR WAY:  The Wrong Trail

Out our way, Charlie trusts me to ride drag when we are pushing the herd. It is not only because he can ride flank and point far better than I, but because he knows I have learned to be patient.

As you may recall, on my first roundup in Wyoming, one the folks got impatient and tried to move the herd faster by driving up in his pickup and laying on the horn.

It was my first roundup and also my first stampede — because these cow were a bit rangey after the long summer and spooked. It took us hours to get them all rounded up again.

Today, I was reading a reflection by Reuben Job on the Temptations of Christ. He noted that the devil’s temptations were not to do evil, but do “good” wrongly, thus causing evil. Like beeping the horn at range cattle — the intent was fine — but the means caused disaster. Look at the Tempter’s offers: “Turn rocks into bread and feed the hungry.” “Demonstrate your superiority and grab the spotlight so all will follow you!” “Replace Caesar and Herod and all the other rulers and take over and then get the job done right.”

And how to do these things? “Just bow down and worship me!” Well Jesus didn’t buy it but many others did: Marx, Lenin, Hitler, Stalin, Mao and Castro to name some modern examples — and history has shown us where going down the wrong trail leads. It as just a version of the original temptation: “replace God with self” that ended Eden.

I recently re-read  George Orwell’s  “1984” and  “Animal Farm”  in which he predicted the terrible price to be paid for those who accepted the Devil’s deal on the Devil’s terms, and history has proven him correct.

As in “Animal Farm,” the leaders of the “revolution” became as corrupt as the old regime. Where there had once been a cruel human farmer, now the animals ran the place … except they didn’t really … at least not all of them as had been promised.

The pigs who rose to the top level of the revolution preached, “all animals are equal.”

But within a short time that slogan was subtly changed to: “All animals are equal, but some are more equal than others.”

As Orwell recognized, change for the better, if it is to be for all,  requires patience and wisdom — not merely loud screams and shouts. And as we all have heard, “those who ignore history are doomed to repeat it.”

Hitler bought the deal and proclaimed the National Socialists would give grade to all. But it didn’t happen.

Lenin and Stalin bought the deal and the Union of Soviet Socialist would raise up the peasants and provide bread for all.

That, too, failed to work. Mao’s Socialist Republic claimed to give the Knee a new deal as did the folks in Cuba and Venezuela whose “workers’ paradise” went the same route as all the others who fell for the Devil’s hoax.

Jesus saw through the tempter’s snare, knowing that any attempt to change the world by force rather than from within is doomed to failure. That is the big lie of Satan —  that given the power and control, you or I could recreate Eden. Satan’s lie to Adam and Eve — that they could replace God with themselves, destroyed Paradise. But that doesn’t mean as P.T. Barnum noted, “There’s sucker born every minute” — and the Devil knows it.  And every generation raises up a new batch of gullible leaders who ignore history and so are doomed to follow it.

Reuban Job admitted that even after all his years as a Methodist minister and spiritual leader, he would likely be tempted and talked into it — as would I. But fortunately, neither he nor I are God. My favorite T-shirt I often shared with my congregation was the one that noted “There IS a God — and I am NOT Him!”

The PEOPLE of my various congregations have never had any illusions on that score, but I had the T-shirt made anyway  — not to remind them, but to remind ME!

Recall that Jesus faced the temptation at the end of a 40-day fast when he was physically at his weakest, but He was never fooled.

His faith was in God rather than Himself, for He chose to be one of us — and that included taking on all our weaknesses, which made Him vulnerable. But He never forgot WHY He had come — and that He was there for US — not Himself.

Even in the church we sometimes forget that, and thus the church itself has not been immune to the temptations and more than a few times has actually fallen for them. Even if you haven’t read much church history and learned of the abuses of power and pride that plagued the church in the Middle Ages, you only have to open the paper, go on the internet, or switch on the TV so see some clergy and religious leaders who have accepted the Devil’s deal — seeking the glory and the power and wealth. Though they usually claim it for the Kingdom of God — the mansions, private planes and huge personal salaries indicate God is not the focus.

Yup, there are great many folks who have “taken the deal”  — in the church, in the government, and in the private sector.

They all claim they are doing the “right” thing — but when it is in the “wrong way,” it is the Devil who is served. You can’t make progress going the wrong way and you won’t climb a mountain going downhill. Sure, I get impatient with the evil in the world, just as I get impatient with slow-moving cattle on a hot day. But I will ride drag and eat dust because I ride for the brand and not for myself — and because I believe the Boss knows the right trail that will eventually get the herd to the still waters and lush pastures that lie ahead.

If there is a short cut or better trail I am sure willing to listen; but if it is just one of the old trails that have been tried before and led nowhere, I will stick to the one I am on,

Blessings,

Brother John