WORKING LIKE A COWBOY by Stephen Bly
Everyone wants to be like a cowboy, it seems. Or to know a cowboy. Even in other countries, to be like a cowboy seems popular. I know this because of writing westerns and the responses I get. Such as the Austin-Stoner Series. I can’t count how many letters I’ve gotten with this request: “Do you know any cowboys like Brady Stoner? If so, could you give me his phone number?”
I’ve told many people how to dress like a cowboy and how to think like a cowboy. But how do you act and work like a cowboy? These cowboy principles can work for you personally. But more than that, they can also work in your business or corporation, for board members or ministry. It’s biblical. It’s also the cowboy way.
Cowboy Principles
1.) You only have one boss.
For the cowboy, the boss is ‘the old man,’ no matter his age. This simplifies life and work. You only have one person to please. Do what God wants you to do. He’s the only one you’re accountable to.
2.) Travel light.
You can’t take a lot with you by horseback on the trail. Get rid of everything that slows you down, that entangles and hinders you. Like sin, toss it out. Clean up your life’s closet.
3.) Take on the tough jobs.
Taking up your cross is not easy, but Jesus requires it. A cross is either a place of sacrifice or an instrument of death. And that is tough. I have to admit I never really knew what it meant to pick up my cross and follow Jesus until … I found out I have cancer. Every day I pick up my instrument of death and follow Jesus.
Pick the hard tasks. There are no easy jobs on the ranch. They’re all dirty and sweaty.
4.) Eliminate every excuse for holding back.
“Follow me,” Jesus said, “and let the dead bury their dead.”
I experienced that. I’m the only son of a farmer who took over the farm from his father. But I believed God called me to some sort of full-time ministry. I didn’t know exactly what they meant, where it would lead me. However, I finally did one of the hardest things of my life. I told my dad I was leaving the farm to follow Jesus.
5.) Choose the narrowest alternative.
Life isn’t easy, folks. You know that. Every person, every family I know goes through rough things. The Bible says, narrow is the gate, the road that leads to life, and only a few will find it. Like a cowboy, to find the narrow trail requires effort and patience. It’s not immediately visible. The wide road is so much easier to discover and travel.
Be Prepared!
6.) Expect trouble.
Be prepared for a fight. Jesus promised that in this world we will have tribulation. We’re not born on the sidelines. From birth, we enter a war in progress. Bullets fly from all sides. And we spend our whole life in the fray. We all have an enemy who hates us. Our enemy purposes to steal, to kill, and to destroy. Even so, he ultimately faces defeat. In the meantime, he fights tooth and nail to gain an advantage. The battle rages.
Heaven will be so different. No more fighting or pain or sorrow. But here on earth, we face trials and tribulations.
7.) Set high standards.
I like to build things. For the fun of it, I built a false-front town, right next to our house, called Broken Arrow Crossing. There’s a mercantile, a jail, a cafe, a gift shop, a blacksmith shop, and a two-story hotel, to name a few. It’s not a miniature scale, but full-sized, like a movie set. You see, I’m still building things for my father. He taught me to be a carpenter, a plumber, and a mechanic. And I still think of him, though he’s been gone 35-years, when I create and fix things.
We need to do things well for our heavenly Father too. Everything is done for Him, to the best of our ability. No shoddy jobs. A high standard of work. Do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
8.) Find your rest in the midst of doing the work right.
“Come to me,” Jesus says, “all who are weary and I will give you rest. My yoke is easy and my burden is light.”
A professor once told me he didn’t want to go to heaven because he didn’t want to lay around on a cloud for thousands of years. Let me tell you, at my age, I’d love to collapse on a cloud. Sounds wonderful to me.
We find rest here on earth under the yoke of Jesus. What is a yoke? It’s an instrument of work for oxen to pull a plow. We find rest in the midst of and completing our work right.
Keep Going
9.) Don’t look back.
Just keep going forward. Farmers understand this. When you’re putting in rows and furrows and you turn around to see how you’re doing, your steering wheel goes crooked.
I’ve been reading a book on the mental game of golf. The author emphasizes to focus on the shot at hand, not the ones you missed.
Jesus says, “If you look back, you’re not fit for service.” Whether it’s failure or success, stay with the task at hand or you’re worthless. That’s tough talk, cut and dry. Like a cowboy, Jesus speaks the practical, simple, and blunt.
10.) Don’t quit until the job’s completely done.
No half-done jobs. In 1926, one of the most popular songs, “When The Work’s All Done,” a cowboy song. When the work’s all done next fall, he’d go home and see his mama.
A cowboy signed up for seasons to do a roundup in summer, or a line camp in the winter. He didn’t stop until the work got done. Same is true in following Jesus.
The Russian writer Solzhenitsyn wrote in his Full Circle that most people are satisfied with an 85% job. We set a goal and when we get 85% of the way there, we say, “Well, that’s close enough.” If you work like a cowboy, you don’t quit until the job’s fully completed.
What’s The Reward?
In order to be motivated to such a high standard, to work like a cowboy, we need to know why. What will we get if we do that? Will it be worth it? Here’s what we get.
Hebrews 11:16 says, “Therefore, God is not ashamed to be called their God.” That verse really gets to me. That’s why I work, why I keep at it. How about you? Can you imagine the God of the universe looking down at you and me and saying, “I’m not ashamed to be called their God.”
Stephen Bly, 2010
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WESTERN WISDOM, “How to Work Like a Cowboy” by award-winning western author Stephen Bly, a BlyBooks.com Legacy Series AUDIO PODCAST. Recorded at Maranatha Bible & Missionary Conference, Norton Shores, Michigan, June 2010.
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“When the Cowboys Come to Town!” cowboy poetry here WHEN COWBOYS COME TO TOWN
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Following Jesus by Stephen Bly
Following Jesus down dusty roads from the Book of Mark. Jesus blueprint for spiritual greatness. Complete Following Jesus book in paperback. Nine separate chapter eBooklets also available. FOLLOWING JESUS PAPERBACK
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