Out Our Way: 'Do not panic' - Isaiah 41:10

Out our way, most cattle seem to know the pasturelands are safe and are used to riders coming and going. Open range cattle, on the other hand, can be nervous as all get out. When Charlie and I worked the herds up on the Tiger Ridge, although we occasionally had to chase a few strays who bolted from the main herd, I never sensed any real panic. However, out in the Beaver Creek area, the park is leased out to ranchers as open range — and when it’s time for roundup, they can be easily spooked.

        I recall one fall day when the various herds were being moved down to the portable pens out by the Rocky Boy’s Indian Reservation, I was taking Doc for a ride in the area. A couple of riders came by and asked me to be on the lookout for some missing strays. Sure enough, about an hour later I came across a few and thought to circle and get behind them and head them down the road where the roundup was taking place. But these strays had spent a long time apart from horses and people and panicked when I approached. They didn’t just move away from me, they ran full tilt as if I was a mountain lion. They didn’t know the difference. Cows are not the smartest critters on earth and range cattle that haven’t been around horses and cowhands can be pretty easily spooked.

Years ago, while working at the Diamond V ranch in Wyoming, we were rounding up some cattle that had been in the sand hills on their own for most of the year, and they were nervous when we first showed up to move them down the valley to the branding chutes. It took a good part of the morning to round them up into the main herd and start the push. But we are making progress until someone got the bright idea of driving into the herd in his pickup and honking the horn. I was riding drag when suddenly 250 cows in sheer panic turned round and came rushing at me. I tried to turn the first few, but the panic had begun and the honking of the horn just kept it going. Being caught in a stampede is not especially healthy — and believe me when I say I was scared. Well, long story short, we got the guy to stop honking the horn, let the cattle get over their panic, and then very slowly and gently got them back together and headed the right way.

I got to thinking about stampedes and panicked herds as I worked my daily shifts at the local mall, hauling carts. While most people are taking this coronavirus seriously, there are others who are in panic mode. Lined up an hour or more before we open, some start pushing and shoving and bawling like stampeding range cattle when we open the doors. I asked a medical professional I know what we should know about the pandemic — and her first word of advice was, “Do not panic.”  

Although rumors abound and some unethical media folk are, like the guy blowing the pickup horn, terrifying a good many and causing “stampedes” with less than the whole story, some good stuff is happening too. I see people pulling together, neighbor reaching out to neighbor, and a divided country laying aside partisan politics to work together. And I also see folks who had forgotten or become indifferent, remembering God again.

The times in which Isaiah wrote was definitely a time of panic with rabble rousers and doomsayers “stampeding” the people. Only a few voices were to be heard calling for faith and trust in God. Isaiah was one of them — and he was scorned, mocked, and persecuted for challenging the “elite” power brokers who had led the nation to turmoil, panic and destruction. Even so, God was still in charge — and His word was “Do not panic”

It is a good word for us today as well. “Do not fear, for I am with you. Do not be dismayed, for I am your God.”

Be blessed and be a blessing. Help stop the stampede and turn back to the Way of the Lord. 

Brother John

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The Rev. John Bruington is the retired pastor of First Presbyterian Church of Havre. He now lives in Colorado, but continues to write “Out Our Way.” He can be reached for comment or dialogue at [email protected].