"Way Back"

Way back in the wild, wild west,

Before the wire was strung,

The range was always open,

And the cowboys all were young.

The Sioux controlled the northern plains,

The Comanche held the south,

And, brother, if you crossed that land,

Best be careful with your route.

But Charlie Goodnight did it,

And others of that brand,

With his partner, Mr. Loving,

Drove cattle ‘cross that land.

And we’re not talking hundreds,

But thousands of those miles,

Extremes with all the weather,

And endless, hardship trials.

We cannot go back there,

Except with what we read,

These generations later,

But still our dreams they feed.

As Mr. Whipple wrote it,

And McMurtry’s epigraph,

We live what they knew in dreams,

Our dreams theirs photograph.

And I know you’ve seen the pictures,

They seldom smiled too much,

And we are told they drank a lot,

And acted wild and such.

But there we stand a-grinnin’,

Those old hands never see,

That behind those smiles we’re thinkin’,

How much we’d like to be,

Back, way back there with ‘em,

When the west was really wild,

But by God’s grace we’re tryin’,

Keep then, now reconciled.

“You saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in your book. Every single moment was laid out before a single day had passed.” (Ps. 139:16, NLT)

Have you ever wondered what your life would be if you’d be born at a different time in history? My good friend, Bart, looks likes he should have been born at least 150 years ago! We laugh about that sometime. But, truth is, God is in charge of all that, even though we sometimes wonder. Even the apostle Paul wrote: “Last of all, as though I had been born at the wrong time, I also saw Him…” (1 Cor. 15:8, NLT). But Paul was not born at the wrong time. None of us are. Some people get so enamored with history that they mistakenly think they’ve lived before and are now reincarnated again. This is an old, eastern idea that is unbiblical and untrue. Nope, we are given one life to live, and are invited to experience a second birth which gives us entrance to God’s Kingdom. Born once, die twice. Born twice, die once. Every life is a gift from God. We don’t have choices to make about when we are born. But we DO have the choice to be born again, and what to do with the life we have been given. Choose well, and we experience the abundant life Jesus died and was raised to give us, and beyond that, life eternal!

Lord, help us to value our days and give them all to You, in Jesus’ name.

My good friend, Bart Massey.