When I was a kid, my Dad was a feedlot cowboy. There are a lot of things about being a
feedlot cowboy that, as a kid, I enjoyed.
Getting to cut school to go ride with Dad was pretty high on the
list. The downside, not so much for my
Dad, but for others was the short employee life. There is a joke about feedlot cowboys and
Saint Peter:
One day Peter was at the golden gate, checking names in the
book. Making sure that everyone waiting
in the line, was marked there. Finally
it was this old man’s turn, as he stepped up to that big ol’ desk…this cowboy
came loping by. He waived at Peter and just
rode on through the gate. Peter waived
back and then turned back to the book, back to checking names.
Waiting in lines has an effect on people that generally isn’t
too pleasant. The ol’ man snapped, just
a little. He said, “Why does that cowboy
get to just ride on by and all the rest of us have to wait in line?”
Peter looked up, surprised.
“Him, oh, he’s a feed lot cowboy”, then he looked down at the book
again.
The ol’ man was still a little miffed, “what has that got to
do with anything?”
Peter said, “Why stop him, he’s only going to be here 30
days anyway!”
Kind of a lame joke, but it’s a lot funnier if you’re a
feedlot cowboy or a feedlot brat.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
All that is a prelude to a story that has nothing to do with
any of that! Just a chance for me to tell a lame joke! Read on!
In one of the many feedlots my Dad worked for, in the
Arkansas Valley, was a little one man show south of La Junta. It had a grand total of about 4 employees,
including the owner and my Dad. The
owners name was Bud, and he and my Dad got along real well.
Across the road from the feedlot, Bud had a pasture that was
about a thousand acres. It only had a
little set of working pens up by the water tank and the outside fence. And my Dad got the wild idea that since Bud
didn’t have anything on that big ol’ place, then surely we could turn our
horses out on it. So he approached Bud
with the idea and, lo and behold, he did not have a problem with that at
all. Although, he did say “you know it
isn’t cross fenced, right?”
Let’s remember this little detail, “you know it’s not cross
fenced”, because it never bothered Dad.
He loaded up all the horses (11-12 head at the time) that he wasn’t
using in the feedlot, and hauled them over to turn them out on this big pasture. I think he was pretty excited about all that
free pasture. What he didn’t plan on was
how wild those horses would get.
Now my Dad was, and still is, a pretty sharp hand with
horses. He knew they would get a little
wild, but his plan was us to feed them once a day…to keep them coming up to the
workin’ pens. This worked out pretty
well at first. We would go by and feed
and those horses would be right there waiting for us.
But as time went on, life got in the way. It was fall and the days were short, so we
weren’t ridin’ much, my brother and I were playing football and we were a
little lazy, just all kinds of distractions.
We missed feedin’ a day, which was ok.
They still had plenty of grass, they wouldn’t miss a day. Over time, a day missed here and a day missed
there turned into a week or two without checking on them. Eventually they quit
coming up to the pens when we would blow that horn. Yeah, we’d see them sometimes driving by on
the way to school, so we know nothing was hurt and they were all still
there. We just sorta stopped feeding
them.
Now Dad normally switched horses about every 90 days. So one day, he took the three he had at the
feed lot and drove over to switch out and get three others. Luckily (well, he was pretty sharp with
horses, maybe luck wasn’t involved), he did not turn the three he had
loose. He honked and honked and the
horse herd was nowhere to be found! Now
my brother (Cully) and I did not understand why the horses were not coming up….I
mean, after all, we had been feeding everyday (not)!
Once he figured out what had happened, he wasn’t about to
wear out three horses chasing twelve over a thousand acres. So we got the truck and started driving. When those horses spotted us, they would take
off runnin’! We’d follow and as soon as
they’d quit runnin’, Dad would stop chasin’!
He’d get out and try to walk up on them.
If they ran again, he’d get in the truck and chase them. When they’d stop, he’d get out again. We did this little exercise for most of the
day, over some really rough country. We
weren't always right behind them, but we were generally close enough. Eventually, this runnin’ off wasn’t so much
fun and He was able to walk right up to them.
He caught the three he needed and fed the rest right there where they
stopped runnin’. He said it was a reward
for them lettin’ themselves be caught.
It took about three days of drivin’ around that pasture before they
started comin’ back to pens daily.
There are three lessons to be learned here.
One: if horses aren’t
fed everyday (by two lazy boys), then they stop coming to the pens. As Christians, if our church doesn’t feed us…then
we stop coming to pens (church), too! Read Malachi 2:1-7, God is whuppin’ on the
priests for not honoring Him and causing others to stumble. Our churches should be a place where we can
fellowship and get fed by the Lord.
Two: we are just like
those horses as Christians. As new
Christians we are right there every day, waiting at the Bible (workin’
pens). Looking to be fed! But as the world wears us out, we come to
those pens (church) less and less. We
end up on the back side of a great big pasture, and we can’t hear the Lord
honkin’ for us to come up and be fed. 2
Corinthians 5:17 and Galatians 6:15 talk about being a new creation. Any new calf, colt or puppy I’ve ever seen is
hungry…just like a new Christian is hungry for the Word of God. Luke 8:14 talks about what happens when we
fall away…we don’t grow!
Three: just like my
Dad fed those horses where they stopped runnin’, he wanted them to remember
that there was some relief in his presence.
God feeds us wherever we stop runnin’ from him and open His book, there’s
relief in His presence! Read Romans
5:1-8, it talks about how we run from Christ and what he offers….if we quit
runnin’
I encourage you to look these verses up and read them. You may get something totally different out
of them than I did, but hey…you’ll be readin’ ‘em!
Thank you Brother for the post. I needed that this morning.
ReplyDeleteGlad you enjoyed it!
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