Once again, I found myself engaged in imagination. No, Jesus was not a cowboy. But, I am confident He did not look like most pictures portray Him. He was not a Fabio type. He was “a man who learned obedience through suffering”, Hebrews: 5:8 and “A man of sorrows acquainted with grief”, Isaiah 53:3. Why? Because of His assigned role from before the creation of the world: to become the redeemer for us who had been separated from God. He became sin for us. He went out into, and got dirty as he walked in, the cesspool of the world so to rescue those in the cesspool. I am one of those. You are, too. No one is exempt from the cesspool. He came to redeem. If he draws, John 6: 44, 65, respond. He got down and dirty to seek and save those who are lost. That means everyone. Anyway, my imagination created the following:
Superb Cowboy
Boulders, Cacti, Sand, Dust.
Cow patties. Bellows. Snorted mucus.
Chaps. Boots. One hat.
Simple meals of beans and hash.
No nice place to lay my head.
Roundin’ up cattle.
Tamin’ doggies.
Bringin’ in the herd.
Kinda like Jesus.
But, His charges were sheep.
He, too, dealt with the dung, baas, and snot.
His meals were simple.
He shared with others and had bounty.
He rounded up errant sheep.
He brought in the flock.
He said foxes have holes.
And the birds have nests.
But, the Son of man had nowhere to lay His head.
No fancy dwellings, but the harshness of life.
Jesus would have made a superb cowboy!
Richard L. Brewer 02/27/2013
Published by sparedbygrace@yahoo.com
I am Richard Brewer—a Christ-follower, psychologist, husband, father, grandfather (Papa) sometimes writer, and lifelong student of people.
For much of my professional life, I've had the privilege of sitting with people as they wrestle with some of life's most difficult questions—questions about faith, suffering, grief, relationships, identity, failure, hope, and what it means to live well.
Those conversations have changed the way I see people and the way I understand my own faith. They have taught me that life is rarely as simple as our explanations of it, that people are almost always more complicated than they appear, and that sometimes the wisest response to a difficult question is to empathize and to keep asking better questions.
I am a committed Christ-follower, but I am not interested in pretending that Christianity eliminates mystery or that faith means having an answer for everything. Faith invites us to pursue truth honestly, to think deeply, to acknowledge what we do not know, and ultimately to trust the God we do know.
Mediocre Meanderings is where I explore some of those questions.
I write about faith and psychology, grief and suffering, leadership and relationships, aging and ordinary life—and occasionally whatever else catches my attention along the way.
I do not write from the perspective of someone who has figured life out. I write as someone who has lived enough of it to know that I have not.
These are my thoughts, questions, observations, and occasional attempts at wisdom. Take what is useful. Challenge what is not. And, if you would like, meander along with me.
View all posts by sparedbygrace@yahoo.com
Mediocre Meandering 