Out Our Way: The cowboy's journal

Out our way, most folks know that a cowboy’s hat is not an affectation, but a statement of who the owner is. Buying a new hat at the ranch wear store is like buying a blank journal. The pages are blank at first, but in time the book is filled. At first the hat, like the new journal, tells nothing of the owner. It has no personality or story to tell at first. But over time, it becomes the working cowboy or cowgirl’s signature. The rain, snow, wind and heat all leave their mark as do the various scrapes and bruises every rider experiences along the trail. Even the best rider get thrown or stomped from time to time.

For some 40 years, I wore the same hat and it bore my history. Other cowboys could read something of my life story by “reading” my hat. There were the stains of weather, the discoloration of long hours of sweat and hot sun — and more than a few areas where damage from being bucked off and or stomped were plainly seen. I feel sorry for the “drugstore cowboy” whose hat is merely a fashion statement, the hat stays the same shape and color as when it was purchased. It is a blank page, for there is no history nor signature attached to it. It’ s just wardrobe. 

But for the working cowboy, the hat is transformed and becomes unique. It tells a story, for it is the record of the cowboy or cowgirl’s years in the saddle which other cowhands can read and understand. Non-Westerners and urban folk may not get it and only see a battered old hat, but fortunately folks who have ridden many miles and worked cows can see and read the story. No working cowhand’s hat remains what it was when first purchased, but time, weather and a few times — or, in my case a lot of times — getting tossed and stomped transform the cowboy’s hat into a unique record of his orher history in the saddle is obvious to those who can read the signs. 

Jesus warned His followers, past, present and future; to beware of “drugstore” Christians who talk the talk but don’t walk the walk. Like the “drugstore cowboy,” whose hat is only for appearance sake, the “drugstore Christian” is all about appearances. In his cartoons “Out Our Way,” from which the column takes it name, cartoonist J.R. Williams portrayed two real cowhands riding by some resort with a drugstore cowboy all decked out, playing guitar and singing “cowboy songs.” One of the cowhands remarks that were twice as many of “those cowboys” than cows these days, and wondered, “what half of what cow that feller herded.”  

“Drugstore believers” have always been with us — folk who are, as they say, “All hat and no cattle.” Jesus contended with them in the synagogues and the Temple. Pharisees who quoted scripture but did not follow it, and Sadducees who use religion to push their own secular agendas and not God’s. They all claimed to be the real deal, but their actions — or lack thereof — like the cowboy’s hat told the real story.

Of the Pharisees. Jesus called many hypocrites, a Greek word that refers to an actor who simply puts on a mask and a costume and plays a role. Of the Sadducees who went along with the pop culture and rejected the authority of God’s Word, He said, “You neither know God nor the Scriptures.” Both were “all hat and no cattle.”  

But as the cowboy’s hat bears witness to his or her life and is their signature as a real cowhand, Christ said the actions or fruits of the faith — or lack thereof — are the true journal and record of all who claim to be His followers. The drugstore disciple is as obvious as the drugstore cowboy once you look closely.

We are all familiar with the “drugstore disciples” who may talk the talk but don’t walk the walk. The scandals of TV evangelists who turned out to be Pharisee hypocrites — play actors and knot the real thing.

We also have seen the trials and the dying so many mainline churches as the Sadducees take over and use the faith for their own purposes. By far more damage are the local drugstore disciples. Recall that ditty about Mr. World.

“Mr. World goes to Church/ He goes there every Sunday./But Mr. World will go to hell/ For what he does on Monday.” Modern Pharisees who quote scripture but do not observe it, abound, as do modern Sadducees who have sold out to the worldly and mostly pagan agendas and “neither know God nor the Scriptures.” 

A cowboy’s hat is the “journal” of the working cowboy and bear testimony to his or her life in the saddle. So too, the “fruits of the faith” — or lack thereof — is the journal of those who claim to serve God. “All hat and no cattle” is not too hard to spot. All talk and no fruit is just as easily spotted. Anyone can claim to be a cowboy. But the working cowboy’ hat shows the truth of the claim. Anyone can claim to be a disciple, but only the fruits the faith shows the truth of that claim. 

Blessings!

Brother John 

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John Bruington can be contacted at [email protected]