"Way Back"

Go way back, go way on back,

To when the west was young,

Smell the dust and catch the track,

The distances far-flung.

A-horseback merrily they went,

Midst danger, flood and fire,

Unwelcome on the way they’re sent,

But cowboys never tire,

To do the things for bovine care,

That they are paid to do,

To rope and gather and to brand,

To see each round-up through.

Fences came, frontiers were closed,

And those wild seasons passed,

But what they did in songs composed,

And stories made them last.

The colorful old horseback boys,

The men of bit and spur,

The yippee-yahs and all their noise,

I doubt it once occurred,

To them they’d be remembered,

And sung about with rhyme,

Most likely laugh good-tempered,

And wonder how their time,

With all its wild and wooly,

Violence, heartbreak, death,

Could be relived so fully,

So long since they drew breath.

We live a life they dreamed of,

They lived a life we dream,

The cowboy life that we love,

They struggled through it seems.

But still the lonely cowhand,

We somehow think we know,

A hero helping us stand,

As on through life we go.

“…this is what He requires of you: to do what is right, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God…” (Micah 6:8, NLT)

We all look back and around us for heroes. And history is full of great examples. But the bottom line is that being a hero in God’s eyes is not complicated. In fact God’s word gives us many concise statements about what the Lord deems important about life and how to live it. Here is one of the best of them from the prophet, MIcah. Of course we experience God’s salvation through faith in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. But as people of faith there is nothing greater than to do what’s right, love mercy and walk humbly with our God.

Lord, help us live exactly the way the prophet says, in Jesus’ name.

Art by Teal Blake, tealblake.com. Used by permission. Thanks, Teal, and God bless you.