Out Our Way: I don't want to go there! Jonah 2:6 -7

Out our way, knowing where you are and where you are going is  pretty important. Knowing WHY you are going there is even more so.

When Charlie and I are moving cow-calf units from one pasture to another, we know where and why, but the cows don’t. That’s why the owner sends  cowhands to move the herds. AS anyone who has worked livestock knows, cows are not the brightest crayons on the box.

Some of you will recall that time Charlie and I tried to move the herd from the old summer pasture down to the winter pasture. There was still some grass left in the opper pasture and the reservoir still had a little water — but it was not enough grazing and watering for the herd come winter, so we had to move them.  They, of course, did not understand and kept bellowing and breaking off running every which way but the right way.

Well, be that as it may, and despite all the complaining, attempts to go the other way even a few cows putting their heads down as if to charge us, we still had to move them. They didn’t understand where or why, but Charlie and I did - so we kept at it — hassling, driving, occasionally using a rope end to “get their attention.” And despite all the annoyance they demonstrated, eventually we got them moved “where they didn’t want to go.” They changed their minds about all that when they discovered  lush grass and  deep pools of fresh water awaiting them, and even the most stubborn old cow lost all desire to go back to the overgrazed dry pasture they had left behind. At the start only Charlie and I  understood the where and why of it —  NOW they did as well.

I have expressed this before - but I sometimes feel as confused and ignorant as old “Bossy” when The Lord starts moving me — especially when it is “where I don’t want to go”.

I balk at going the way He points me — I try to run and He heads me off. I bawl like a young calf and bellow like an old bull at the “injustice of it all!” For, like them, I don’t understand where or why. But God does. And unlike those cows Charlie and I had to move, I at least know Who the Drover is that is pushing me. He is no indifferent cowhand and I am not some dumb cow. He is my Father in Heaven and I am His beloved one.

The more I remember and realize this, the clearer it becomes that is for my good that He is pushing me — and that going where I do not want to go may be the only way to get where I want to be!

I may not understand the where or the why — but He does — and it is for my benefit that I am , no matter how reluctantly, heading  there.

Be blessed and be a blessing!

Brother John

——

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]. A small collection of “Out Our Way” stories and illustrations is available at Amazon.com in “Out Our Way: Theology Under Saddle.”