"Sure?"
Are you sure you want to cowboy?
The job can thankless be,
The cook is dour, and long the hour,
In places few folks see.
It’s not like in the rodeo,
Where people clap and cheer,
But far from town, no one around,
Just God’s creation near.
And sometime horses make it tough,
To get your job done right,
‘Bout halfway broke, and it’s no joke,
Been known to kick and bite.
Wild cattle, hard to gather,
Will squat right down and hide,
Hard to find and plumb unkind,
To those who rope and ride.
The weather’s unforgiving,
It’s hot and cold and wet,
The wind will blow, so that you know,
No one controls it yet.
And you won’t make any money,
At least when it’s compared,
To incomes strong, it won’t belong,
To save you’ll be impaired.
But then again the things you’ll see,
With sunrise on the plain,
Where grass is sweet, beneath your feet,
When the seasons turn again.
A-horseback in good country,
A simple life to live,
Lifestyle free, will always be,
You get more than you give.
A throwback to a better time,
When men meant what they said,
A handshake then, made deals back when,
And those old ways aren’t dead.
But you have to look to find it,
A cowboy way out there,
It’s not for some, who cannot come,
To fall off the grid somewhere.
But there are a few who do it,
Love this life and choose,
Live day to day the cowboy way,
And don’t care what they lose.
With the vast and far horizon,
The mountain and the stream,
The morning still and quiet fill,
The hawk upon the wing.
And one more thing I’ll say about,
This way of life for sure,
The Good Lord knows and sometimes shows,
His grace, the only cure.
For some sick soul who’s searching,
To simply find a place,
And there they go, to cowboy so,
To find a slower pace.
With the grasslands as the backdrop,
They find the One they seek,
And with Him find, some peace of mind,
And strength where they’ve been weak.
For someone’s heart that’s sick and tired,
Of this modern, high-tech mess,
The quiet peace, from stress release,
Could be the very best.
You sure you want to cowboy,
It’s best to think it through,
It’s waiting there, for those who dare,
May be it’s right for you.
“Commit everything you do to the Lord. Trust Him, and He will help you…” (Psalm 37:5, NLT)
It matters where we live and what we do for a living. We all know people who dread going to work and dealing with their misery day to day. Perhaps this describes your current situation. Not everyone is supposed to run off and be a cowboy! But all of us can commit what we do to the Lord and trust Him to help us. Jesus said that He came to give us super-abundant life. This quality of life stems from our relationship with Him and the contentment He gives. But, it is also about how we spend our days. It’s good to know we can trust the Lord with all of it!
Lord, lead us into the lifestyle You have planned for us, and help us commit everything we do to You, in Jesus’ name.
Art by Doug Monson, dougmonson.com. Used by permission. Thanks, Doug, and God bless you.