Last article I mentioned the phrase ‘Cowboy Up'. Now, given all that’s happening in the world at the moment and in my own personal life, I thought it be a good idea to expand on that and how it applies to our walk of faith.
Our walk of faith ain't easy - God never said that this walk would be easy, so now is time to get up and saddle up for the long ride.
What is it to cowboy up?
Many old cowboys have said many different things about what it is to cowboy up. Through their experiences with life and living this kind of life their definition has been different compared to one another. But essentially it comes down to a few key things.
Thing number one –
All grit and no quit. In today’s society people seem to give up easy. When the going gets tough people get going. Things don’t last like they used to, people are more willing to give up than to stick it out.
They don’t seem to want to give things a chance or see how hard work, how true grit pays off – as such they miss out on some pretty amazing stuff or even just the satisfaction of a job finished.
Thing number two –
Even if you’re scared as hell, get up and go do it anyway. This one here comes in handy, especially when it comes to getting ready to ride a rank bull that is so huge it could kill you in a matter of seconds - or something like sharing the gospel with a non-believer, and even obeying the word of God and what he’s commanded us to do.
The point is God says in His word that perfect love cast out all fear. So despite whatever it is, God is in control and as it was said in the famous Psalm – “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I shall not fear.”
Thing number 3 –
Pick yourself up, dust off and keep going. In bull riding getting a concussion is an occupational hazard, so is hitting the ground hard and even getting bones broke. But, if you ever watch bull riders, bronc riders, barrel racers – they take some pretty hard hits.
These kind of hits leave you winded, and unsure if you can or should even keep going. What myself, and other cowboys and cowgirls do is despite all of this we get back up dust ourselves off and go for it again – even if the injury makes it impossible to ride for months.
Now I can say this cause I’ve been through hell and tried to deal with the pain of life, marriage ending and almost dying in a car accident with a bottle. We as believers don’t have the right to accept defeat.
We have the right to surrender and cry out to God, but after the price that our Lord and saviour paid- no matter the circumstances are we can’t accept defeat. Now we are human and we are going to anyway, but it is in those moments we keep crying out to God and trust Him to turn defeat into victory
Now what?
See now I’ve explained what it is to cowboy up. The only thing left to do is do it. Sure, it’s harder than hell sometimes, and most of the time all you want to do is stay in bed and let the world go on by.
Does a farmer do this? no – they get up anyway because they have a job to do. This applies to all of us. We aren’t called to let the world go by, not to be of it but a part of it living as Christ commanded us to and fulfilling our commission – the one given to us by Christ himself.
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.