Out Our Way - He stayed with me - John 14:18-31

Out our way, you know the old saying, "Ain't a horse cain't be rode nor a cowboy cain't be throwed!" As a really lousy cowhand, I got tossed with alarming regularity. Folks asked if I rode broncs - as my nickname is "Bronco" - and I would answer, "Yes ... but never on purpose!"

Ole Doc - the four-left-footed cowpony who regularly sent me flying as he stumbled, tripped and sometimes got a "stitch in the side" - tossed me a great many times. I ended up in the ER with sprained ribs many times and my doctor, a better horseman than I, always laughed at me when I came in for treatment. But he got it - no cowboy goes long without being tossed and even stomped. He just enjoyed seeing me paying the price he had also had to pay over the years working with horses and cows. As J.R.R. Williams in his cartoon series "Out Our Way" famously remarked, "These are signs of the trade."

The same is true in discipleship. No one who truly follows Christ will come out of this life unscathed. You will be scoffed at - ridiculed - in some places persecuted and accused of the very evil your enemies practice. The days of the martyr - witness - is not over, it is just more subtle and acceptable for the Enemy's servants.

I would get tossed by "Doc;" sprained ribs and sometimes worse were regular occurrences. But when I ended up in the dirt, rocks, or cactus, Doc stayed with me. I would crawl over to him and he waited. I grasped the stirrup and began to pull myself up, and he waited. I groaned and whimpered as I tried to get my foot in the stirrup and painfully stood up to swing up on board - and he waited. He waited until I was set and clicked, and he gently walked forward, heading back to camp and eventually the ER.

I have been tossed and stomped and "busted up" trying to be a disciple far more often than trying to be a cowboy. As lousy as I am as a cowhand, I am even worse as a pastor, preacher, and evangelist. Yet God does not desert me. He waits for me to crawl back and seek to try again. God, like Doc. is patient. He waits for us and will not abandon us as we crawl forward and try to get back up. "Here am I!" says the Lord, "Seek My Face!" - or in Montana speak: "Cowboy up and get back on!"

I confess, I don't understand why I am spitting out dirt and plucking out cactus thorns so often. I cry out to the Lord to ask "Why?" and all I get is Him saying "That's above your paygrade!"

That, and the awareness that He has not deserted me even though I faceplant time after time. Somehow and in some way, God is working out a miracle and although I don't get it, He does and tells me to relax ... He's got this ... and He is working His will.

I don't understand it. But I do understand He, like Doc, is waiting for me to get back in the saddle and ride.

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."