TO WEAR THE COWBOY HAT
John 14:6
Jesus said to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me."
I've owned a very expensive cowboy hat for many years. Its not something that I would have spent much money on, but a custom hat maker once saw something I had that he wanted and I got a great cowboy hat in the deal.
I don't wear it much. Sometimes in the mountains or in the western prairies while hunting, I'll wear it. I love the looks and the protection it gives... so why not wear it more? Because I'm not a real cowboy and somehow I don't feel I have a right to pretend to be one.
I've been blessed to be able to ride horses into the mountains. I've helped gather calves for castration and branding. I've smelled the burning hair and flesh when the iron leaves it's mark on the rump... but I've never lived the life of a real cowboy. Doing a few cowboy things now and then doesn't make someone a cowboy.
As I consider why I don't wear my cowboy hat very often it made me think about our society. Back in the 1950s nearly every single American had some connection to a church. On Sundays most were seated in a pew and hearing some sort of message. There was a standard for right and wrong and it came from God's word. Today most of that life is gone.
Like the cowboy hat, people still wear gold and silver crosses on chains around their necks, but they have no idea why. They are like the "cowboy wannabes"... they might look the part, but they don't have what it takes to wear the cowboy hat. They are going through the motions, but they've never taken on what it takes to be authentic.
Ask most people that wear a cross or speak the name of Jesus... (but only in vain) what it means, they won't know.
You see there's a price to be paid to wear the cross, to speak the name of a holy God... like wearing the hat. To me, I've never paid the price to wear the hat full time as a cowboy . And most haven't paid the price to claim to be someone they're not, living for God.
There's a big difference in paying your dues to live the cowboy life and to be able to honestly say, you're living the Christian life. To call yourself a true cowboy it takes a lot of blood, sweat and tears. You pay the price with a sore back, bad knees and worn out bodies. The cowboy hat needs to be dirty and have a sweat ring around it from hard, hot work.
The good news for someone that wants to live the Christian life... Jesus paid your way with His own blood sweat and tears on your behalf. We can earn the title of cowboy and wear the hat, we can never do enough to earn and wear the name of Jesus... there's only one way and that is trusting the work He did... not our own.
Ephesians 2:8-9 makes it clear
"For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God 9 not by works, so that no one can boast."
There's nothing we can do to earn what God wants for us. If you want to wear the hat of Christian... it's just a matter of faith in Jesus and what He did on the cross and then the empty tomb.
Go ahead and wear the cowboy hat... but that doesn't make you a cowboy any more than wearing a cross or going through the motions makes you a Christian.
Romans 5:8 But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
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