Out Our Way: Dealing with a stampede - Ephesians 4:25 - 5:2

    Out our way, us greenhorns sometimes rely more on TV and the movie than common sense when it comes to working cows. I remember being caught in a mini-stampede during a roundup. Some 25 head panicked and broke from the herd when someone started blowing the horn on his pickup truck. These were range cows and not pasture cattle, so they tended to be a bit more frisky when branding time came around. 

     Now, in the movies and on TV, I had seen the hero stop the stampede by racing amongst the herd to the front and turning the lead cow so that the rest of the herd would follow and by turning constantly into themselves, the panicked herd calmed down. Well, maybe that works sometimes - but it sure didn't work for me! I galloped through the running herd to the front, turned the lead cow to the right to begin the circle ... and the rest of the herd raced right by me and just kept going, still bawling and showing no signs of stopping.  

So there I sat - with one lone cow while the rest of the herd raced on by. The one cow I had turned quickly pulled out and raced after the departing dust cloud as well, as I began to ponder what had gone wrong. Finally it occurred to me that the cattle were spooked and my actions had only spooked them further. Maybe whooping and hollering at them while riding full tilt at full gallop into their midst wasn't the best way to stop the panic.

Indeed, I rode over a ridge and galloped about a half mile on the other side, and then came back up and over the ridge at a slow walk. As I had hoped, without me spurring them on, the panic subsided and I found all of them nicely bunched up in a narrow gully where the grass was still abundant. Then I slowly rode towards them, started singing an old cowboy ballad that I had heard the night riders had favored back in the day of the big trail drives. And they stayed calm, began to turn back the way they had come, and slowly, gently, I urged them back to the trail and towards the branding fires that we had set up earlier for them.

Reading Paul's letter to the Ephesians as well as the Gospel accounts of Christ's ministry, notice the "fire and brimstone" approach to the gospel is missing. Oh yes, there are clear warnings of the consequences of living an evil life and refusing to turn back to the way of life, but they tend to be more along the lines of warning the foolish traveler seeking to drive to LA that heading east out of Denver will not lead to the desired result. But most of the admonitions are out of love - not judgement. Stopping a toddler from drinking poison or fencing off a bridge that is falling apart and about to collapse is not being judgmental or needing to push people around ... it is about caring for folks and wanting to keep them safe.

Jesus warns us as a mother warns the toddler and the highway sign warns travelers out of sincere love and concern for our well being. And we need to do the same as His servants. Notice how Paul tells us to be kind and compassionate rather than loud and obnoxious.

I remember reading of the famous explorer Henry Stanley who set out to find the world-famous and much-beloved Christian missionary Dr. David Livingstone who had seemingly disappeared in Africa. After a long and arduous search, Stanley finally found Dr. Livingstone had set up another of his medical clinics in the deep interior of Africa ... and uttered the phrase that would soon make up the headlines in newspapers around the world: "Dr. Livingstone, I presume?"

But what was really far more amazing and noteworthy was Stanley' later reflection on Livingstone. Stanley was an agnostic with no real interest in religion and Livingstone was a Scottish missionary who shared his faith as well as his medical expertise with any and all he came into contact with. Stanley remarked in his diary, "Being with Livingstone day in and day out almost compelled me to become a Christian, although he never said a word about conversion." This is the way of the Gospel - the Way of Christ - preaching with love and compassion and "only using words when necessary."  

The devil does not fear the loudmouth, arrogant, judgmental Christian who seeks to frighten and browbeat their neighbors. They are harmless to the dark Lord and will serve his purposes by further scattering the herd. But ... the devil is terrified of the Livingstones ... those quiet believers who gently come into our midst, quietly living out the faith, preaching the Gospel with their lives and sincere love for all. 

Be blessed and be a blessing.

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].