"Roping Armadillos"

Got reset in the saddle,

And took a deeper breath,

I knew I had been rattled,

This scared me half to death.

How can an armadillo,

Cause this big a fuss,

For a horse this seasoned,

And so broke you can trust.

Maybe it was the sunlight,

Just ‘fore the sun goes down,

A-shining through the tree limbs,

Right down to the ground.

Or maybe that thing snortin’,

And running really fast,

Right at his feet so quickly,

Before he made his pass.

Old Strait he went to pitchin’,

Like he never has before,

And I was pulling leather,

And tryin’ to get some more.

I think I got it figured out,

I never should have tried,

To rope that little critter,

Just let him scoot on by.

Just thought it might be somethin’,

A story I could tell,

Catch one good armadillo,

My how my pride would swell.

But you know that I missed him,

I threw right where he’d been,

Thank God I didn’t catch him,

‘Cause Strait was buckin’ then.

Oh well, no real harm done,

I’m in my saddle seat,

Headed in by sundown,

And not down on my feet.

The Good Lord keeps us humble,

And I’ve had so much worse,

Than roping armadillos,

And so I’ll end this verse.

“…God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble…” (James 4:6, NLT)

Humility is a trigger for God’s grace. But what is humility exactly? Well, it’s the opposite of being proud, arrogant, egotistical and cocky. It’s when you don’t have an over-inflated view of yourself. In fact the best definition I’ve heard for humility is seeing ourselves accurately, as God sees us. God is committed to resist our pride until we see. If He didn’t and just let us go, it would show He doesn’t really care. But He does, and resists our pride until we turn to Him in humility. We are saying, in effect, I’m willing to get honest about who I am, what I’ve done and what I want. If we see ourselves in need of God’s help and admit it, God pours out grace on us. This grace was bought by Jesus’ blood and will do for us whatever we need. If we need salvation, it will save us. If we need deliverance, it will set us free. If we’ve been wounded, it will heal us. If we walk humbly, we will consistently be able to lay hold of God’s supply of grace. He promised and we can count on it.

Lord, we humbly ask for grace, in Jesus’ name.

Art by Tim Cox, timcox.com. Used by permission. Thanks, Tim, and God bless you.