When life goes all kinds of sideways, we often have a choice; either give up and go into survival mode or cowboy up and grit your way through it.
There are occasions where we feel like life don’t often give us an option other than give up, but once you give up, when do you stop? Do you ever stop?
It is usually in these make it or break it moments that we set the tone for the rest of our days here on earth. It is here we decided to stay as boys or become cowboys.
When it goes sideways
When life goes all kinds of sideways it could be anything that comes up and knocks us rear end up. For David it was the constant being hunted by a man who once loved him and saw great promise in him. It was sleeping with a married woman and then arranging a murder, heck at some point his own son even tried to kill him.
Don’t even get me started on Job, can you imagine dealing with the crap that man had to go through?
Point is when life went sideways these men decided to cowboy up and turn to the Lord and weather the storm. As a cowboy getting ready for a ride there is so much going through my head, one of them being what if this ride goes sideways and I end up in pieces or worse dead, and there has certainly been a few of those moments where it could have gone that way.
Its moments like this that we either cowboy up or just give up and curl up, letting what threw us sideways get the better of us.
The Original Cowboy
There is no two ways about it, Jesus was the original cowboy. If you look at His life it was a constant fight against the status quo. He blazed trails that no man had dared to go before – trails that we can still to this day follow.
He showed us the way and all we got to do is follow. He knew what it was to deal with things when they went sideways and it all broke loose.
He was tempted and yet he overcame, there was a point just before he was taken by the Romans that He asked God “take this cup from me” but it was his defining moment because He knew what he had to do and how it had to be done.
He showed us in that what it meant to cowboy up and be cowboy.
It Aint Easy
Now listen here O son, it isn’t going to be easy and speaking from personal experience - from currently having my living situation fall apart again and going through a divorce somedays you just want to say, ‘not today Lord’.
Truth be told that seems a whole lot easier than dealing with it all. But in doing that what do we lose? What does someone else lose? What if that was the day the Lord was going to use your journey to inspire and lead someone else close to Him and His amazing glory?
Even though its not easy, we have his strength and to follow the path blazed by the original cowboy – Jesus. So, what excuse do we really have to remain a boy when the Good Lord needs Cowboys?
Get it Done
We really are not left with much of a choice, other than to get it done and follow the lead of Jesus – the original Cowboy. When you think about it, how much did a person miss out on just because they were content with being a boy?
Why not follow in the amazing steps Jesus blazed and literally do great things then He did? Remember those were His words – greater things you will do? So, lets cowboy up and go from boys to cowboys in those defining moments when it all goes sideways.
Look at the world right now it’s going sideways, so why not do what were have been commanded to do.
Ash lives in Kingaroy, Queensland. It’s here he works as a farm hand, bull rides and finishing his degree in teaching. Ash is a former young writer and has returned to the team.
