Out Our Way: Who you calling fat, Fatso? - 2 Samuel 12:7 

Out our way, winters can get pretty cold, to be honest. Neither Doc nor I got much exercise. Big Mike could drive his pick up to check the herd in the lower . winter pasture so horses were not really all that critical. Neither Doc nor I complained!

But come spring and getting ready to push the herd to the upper pastures where Charlie and I did a great deal of checking on horseback, well let's just say it was amazing how both cinches and belts shrunk over the cold spell. I recall bridging Doc out for our first ride, currying him and checking his hooves and all, and then put on the saddle pad and saddle. Strangely, his belly cinch had apparently gotten shorter as I found it hard to get it around his girth. I had to really haul hard to get it to even the first notch - and as patient as ole Doc is, he gave me some dirty looks and wheezed a bit when I finally got him cinched. "You really got fat, Doc," I said as I tied him off. Strangely, I had had the same issue with my belt when I put on my work jeans.

Then I tried to step up and swing aboard, but found my leg wouldn't get up to the stirrup because my gut was in the way. I had to hop a few times to get my foot in the stirrup and hop a few more times in my attempt to swing up. I didn't swing ... I crawled. And Doc turned to look at me with a reproachful gaze and ears indicating irritation that plainly said, "Who you calling fat, Fatso?" Seems I had also gotten portly over the long winter.

As we face the upcoming elections, it is wise to remember that even the best of us is only human - and pretending otherwise only leads to tragedy. King David, "a man after God's own heart" (1 Samuel 13:14) in the beginning, got proud and egotistical. We all know the story of him seducing Bathsheba, another man's wife - and then had that man killed so he could make her one of his wives so he could hide his adultery when he found he had gotten her pregnant. But God knew and soon so did the rest of the Kingdom when the prophet Nathan declared "Thou art the man!" when it was clear David was an adulterer.

From that time forward, David's rule began to fall apart - not simply because of his sin, but of his lack of repentance. He taught his own children the idea that "rules for thee but not for me" is an acceptable attitude for the rich and powerful elites. They listened and perished. The kingdom lasted one more generation as even the great and supposedly wise Solomon followed that view ... and, when he died, the kingdom of Israel soon died as well. Civil war ... 10 0f the 12 tribes lost to eternity ... and the remaining kingdom of Judah was destroyed, taken into captivity by Babylon - modern Iraq - in 597 BC, and the Jewish people would never again be an independent people or nation until 1948 AD.

Joseph Goebbels, the Nazi propaganda chief, boasted that he could easily manipulate and control the masses by "accusing the other side of doing what we are doing ourselves." Sound familiar? Me pointing out that Doc was fat did not change the fact that I had also gotten fat. If you read carefully the account of Nathan confronting King David, you see Nathan let David believe all the wickedness the prophet was describing were the failings of someone else - and David's self-righteous condemnation of another man's sins fell on his own head when Nathan declared, "Thou art the man!" 

Recently I meditated on "The Lord's Prayer" and came to that "forgive us our debts/ trespasses/sins against others, as we forgive our debtors/ those who trespass/sin against us." Oh, I have a great many charges against others to complain about ... but hold on ... do they also have legitimate charges against me? 

Who are you calling fat, fatso? Ouch. In my self-righteousness, how often will God point at me and say, "Thou art the man?" I think I better think it out again.

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].