"Practice"

I don’t see how you do it,

That’s what I told my friend,

He was such a roping hand,

With the cattle that we penned.

Sometimes underhanded,

He’d flip out coils and loop,

And just as pretty as you please,

That calf’s heels he’d scoop.

Seen him throw the Houlihan,

Cross seven horses deep,

To catch the one he wanted,

And saddle for to keep.

I hardly ever saw him miss,

He smiled when I would ask,

If it ever happened,

With his roping task.

He never really answered,

Just laughed and looked away,

But his mama told me,

The truth he would not say.

He roped with no one looking,

He practiced all the time,

For hours, then for hours more,

He’d throw and coil that twine.

He’d tell himself he couldn’t stop,

Till one hundred throws,

Caught the target he aimed for,

And all them in a row.

Then he’d say two hundred,

And then go up to five,

He’d go on up to two times that,

For accuracy strive.

I’ve thought about it many times,

When I took down my rope,

I’ve missed ‘em at ‘bout every speed,

A walk and trot and lope.

And it never really mattered much,

Not like my friend, you see,

‘Cause I have never spent the time,

To rope as well as he.

What if we had the passion,

Like that to live for Christ,

Gave it all our practice time,

And made the sacrifice.

To be the best that we can be,

Practicing our throws,

By doing what the Good Book says,

With Jesus living close.

We still might miss it sometime,

But odds would change I bet,

We’d do His will consistently,

And get good at it yet.

When no one else is watching,

We give and fast and pray,

Making sure it’s all for Him,

And then on judgment day,

What we did in secret,

He will then make known,

We gave the Good Lord lots to bless,

And because of grace we’ve grown,

To catch whate’er we throw at,

‘Cause He has caught us, too,

Practiced with the love line,

Learned not to miss, it’s true.

“But when you pray, go away by yourself, shut the door behind you, and pray to your Father in private. Then your Father, who sees everything, will reward you.” (Matthew 6:6, NLT)

Our lives as Christian believers depends entirely upon our personal, private relationship to the Lord. Everything flows from this secret place. The reason the roper in the poem was so good is because of his private practice. Our lives change for the better when we do the three things Jesus said we should be devoted to privately. Those three things were giving, praying and fasting. It’s not that we have to be paranoid about people finding out what we do. It’s that we are not doing it to be seen by them. We press into a private devotional life that produces external results and is rewarded by our Father. Giving, praying and fasting are the private building-blocks of a strong spiritual life. Practice produces results!

Lord, help us privately practice so that we may enjoy Your blessing, in Jesus’ name.

Art by Bill Anton, used by permission. Thanks, and God bless you.