Out Our Way: Dally up

Isaiah 33:6 'The LORD will be the sure foundation for your times, a rich store of salvation and wisdom and knowledge: the fear of the LORD is the key for this treasure'

Out our way, almost everybody carries a rope on their saddle and some really know how to use it! I know folks who can both throw the hoolihan and score points at the rodeo in regular calf roping. Others, like yours truly, can barely shake out a loop without tripping over the rope. But one thing we all share in common when swinging a rope, is to remember the dally. 

On my first roundup at the Diamond V in Wyoming, we had a branding chute set up - and a "friend" handed me his rope and suggested I try to rope a calf when it ran out. I started to shake out a loop when it suddenly occurred to me that the rope was not tied to anything. If, by some miracle, I actually roped that calf, it was going to drag me across the corral because I had no place to dally the rope. I handed the rope back to the friend and asked him to show me how to do it first. He just laughed and walked away, aware I was on to him. 

We live in a time when a great many people twirl "wokeness" and "cancel culture," etc. like a rope that has no dally. Their demands and ideas are not based on solid facts or thinking but popular opinions of their crowd. Ultimately these views fall flat and fail because they have no foundation. 

Not surprisingly, many such folk reject the LORD and/or the Scriptures. I even know some former pastors who try to claim Christ was "woke". OK, as we used to say in grad school when someone made a questionable statement: "SOURCE?" Like the popular "medicine show" preachers, they pick and choose scriptures to interpret to fit their agenda, what we call "proof texting".

Tossing what you want to believe as facts requires more than your opinion or that of pop culture. It is often a rope without a dally. What is the evidence to support your view? "Dally your rope" around solid arguments and not just your personal feelings. Isaiah reminded Israel to seek wisdom from the LORD. He is our source.

Now I am aware I am also simply spouting opinion and I may be wrong on many things. But I believe the LORD is my foundation - He is the solid and unbreakable "saddle horn" on which I dally my views. If I am wrong, He WILL correct 

me. The rope will break or slip off, but the dally will remain.

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].