June 12 - Cowboy Christianity

Cowboy Christianity

"Therefore gidyup (my translation) and make disciples…"  (Matthew 28:19)

While being born in Texas doesn't officially make you a cowboy, it does certify you to be a lifetime fan of their football team.  I reckon that would apply to me. When born with a southern gene pool, phrases such as "How 'Bout Them Cowboys!" become part of the vernacular whether they have been in the playoffs in recent years or seem to be a bygone era.  You can take the boy out of Texas but you can’t completely take Texas out of the boy.

Mac Davis crooned, "I thought happiness was Lubbock, Texas, (my birthplace) in my rearview mirror." The advancements of technology, agriculture, and herding may have become a little more extinct than days gone by, but the ways of the Cowboy are still alive and well though rather foreign to our thinking.  Images of the classic cowboy evoke a rugged masculine exterior and kind interior that can handle the ways of the wild but sometimes don't fit into the modern world.  

Years ago, Cowboy Joe was telling his fellow cowboys back on the ranch about his first visit to a big-city church.
"When I got there, they had me park my old truck in the corral," Joe began.
"You mean the parking lot," interrupted Charlie, a worldly fellow.
"I walked up the trail to the door," Joe continued.
"The sidewalk to the door," Charlie corrected him.
"Inside the door, I was met by this dude," Joe went on.
"That would be the usher," Charlie explained.
"Well, the usher led me down the chute," Joe said.
"You mean the aisle," Charlie said.
"Then, he led me to a stall and told me to sit there," Joe continued.
"Pew," Charlie retorted.
"Yeah," recalled Joe. "That's what that pretty lady said when I sat down beside her."

While hygiene may not always be a forte, chivalry and a gentlemanly manner always seem to be.  Spend any time around them and you will hear a language not completely foreign but very close to it.  Such words in the cowboy dictionary include:

- amigo, n.; friend, pardner, compadre.
- buckaroo, n.; a cowboy
- cayuse, (cai·use), n.; TexMex for a horse.
- chuck, n.; meal, food, grub.
- cookie duster, n.; moustache.
- chaps, leather leg coverings
- dogie, (dough·gee), n.; a calf with no mamma

- gidyup, get going
- gringo, n.; Tex-Mex and cowboy lingo for Caucasian (white) male
- lasso, n.; see "rope" and "lariat".
- maverick, n.; an unbranded (owner unknown) bull or steer ranging wild.
- pardner, n.; also, pardner, derived from partner.

-spurs, n.; on boots to prod a horse in stride
- vamoose, v.; cowboy lingo for "Let's go."
- wrangler, n.; used interchangeably with "cowboy".

Speaking in cowboy slang, discipleship terms could be translated a little differently.  Makes you wonder what discipleship would have been had Jesus grown up in the south of Texas rather than south of Israel. Years ago, someone referenced a simple way to approach Christianity from a cowboy frame of mind:

1)  Ride ‘Em (Matthew 28:19)

     Matthew 28:19 "Therefore go and make disciples…"  Cowboys had to ride a “cayuse” to get their work done. They had to "get up and go" to get anything done. "Get up and go" is one of our problems today. Jesus said to "go" into all the world and get something done for Him.
2)  Rope ‘Em (Romans 6:4)
     Cowboys round up cows and rope 'em. We need to do similarly with people who need to be “lasso’d.” We need to round 'em up and rope 'em. In other words, we need to make disciples out of people. We need to make followers or encourage people to become followers of Christ. Have you made any followers lately?

 3)  Brand ‘Em (Acts 2:38)

      Branding is not a recent tech term that first began in marketing but rather out on the range when a “dogie” or horse was permanently marked for ownership. through salvation and baptism. When people come to the point where they want Christ to save them, point them to baptism.  There they identify with the Savior as the Ethiopian eunuch chose to do so in Acts 8.
4)  Corral ‘Em (Hebrews 10:25)
      Growth comes through the Word, prayer, and fellowship with other “pardners.” 

Cowboys of old were committed to their job of riding herd and taking care of that herd. Likewise, we, as God's people, God's herdsmen, have been called to do nothing less.

Mac Davis would conclude his song, “I thought happiness was Lubbock, Texas, in my rearview mirror…but now I know that true happiness is when it’s nearer and near.”  That could be said of Christ…once we were not His children and now we are.  I reckon we better “Gidyup for Jesus!”

Terry Risser

Reflections:

1) How are you doing in the Ride ‘Em, Rope ‘Em, Brand ‘Em and Corral ‘Em stages?

2) What can God do to use you in a great way today?

Consider reading the Word today:

 

Copyright 2014- Terry Risser