Out Our Way: This is the way

Isaiah 30:21 This is the way, walk in it.

I have shared this text many times before because it is a message I need to heed, and most likely, so do you. Out our way, the Tiger Ridge is not a flat plateau, but an area with many ridges, old trails, arroyos, thorn bushes and deep gullies. Like it or not, Charlie and I found many a calf lost and apart from their mama and the herd because they wandered down the wrong trail and ended up in a gully.

Unlike the cattle - and especially the newborns - Charlie and I knew the area and the trails. There were many cow trails criss-crossing the flats in the lower area, but Charlie and I know which trails led to the main trail and which just wandered aimlessly and could show the cattle - and especially the calves - to walk the right trails to where the food and water were waiting. 

Unlike some humans who resent being pointed the way to good pasture and still waters, even the dumbest calves seemed to get the message that we were there to help and show them the way. They knew they didn't know the trail, but somehow got the message that Charlie and I did. Those who stuck close to Mama didn't have a problem - the "wild ones" who decided to go off on their own did. That is why Big Mike sent Charlie and me: "To show them the way!"

In my youth I was something of a wild wanderer, left the Church and forgot Christ and went my own way. "How's that working out for you?" Not good - not good at all. Then God sent me some young people - about my age - who invited me to consider a different way.

I saw some cute girls among them and thought I would just play along - but, big surprise, no girls, but a glimpse of "The Way." Of all people in the world, if anyone was less able to be a pastor, it was me ... and that is what God opted to call me to do. Talk about "miscasting!" 40 years later I am still an ordained pastor. You gotta be kidding! Yet here am I. 

Like those calves in the arroyos who wandered away and got lost, God sent folks, as Big Mike sent Charlie and me - to help them get out of the hole and onto the trail. This is the way! Walk in it!

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].