Rodeo and Religion...

It has been a long and busy day.

I found myself with a predicament this morning. When I was in college, I was an active attender of Risen Ranch Cowboy Church in Carthage, Missouri. I started goin' cause Lucas Littles told me too, but once I got there it was a good time. While I was there I was able to meet a lot of good guys, that really shaped who I am now. One guy, Johnny Clem, really took time out to talk to me and discuss stuff. The guy trains horses for a living, but has one of the clearest outlooks on ministry that I have ever heard. This morning, as part of the State High School Finals Rodeo, they brought in a singer from Dallas. She was awesome. She sang and spoke from horseback. As she sang her last song, "I pledge of Allegiance to the Lamb", the great Ray Boltz song, she stood up on top of her saddle. It was great to see all the competitors there and their families. There were probably 200 cowboys there...then our 8 kids. I (and Tricia) took our Sunday school classes to Cowboy Church for Sunday school. I think that was the closest many of them had ever been to a horse.

After returning to Central Park, I headed back to the State Finals. This time I had a tag-along. Trey went with me. He had never been to a rodeo. He had three high points: 1) the bull riding 2) getting to talk to the state Runner up Team Roper: Ryan Domer...he was pretty impressed to be standing that close to a guy who was actually competing, 3) his rainbow snow cone that he got in the middle of the goat tying. Good stuff. I think he had a good time.

As for youth group...I led worship. Three songs, half heartedly sung well off key. Nuff said. Afterward we talked about how Jesus saves us from Isolation. We looked a David's isolation in Psalm 8 and 142. They took notes on the feelings that David expressed in these Psalms as I read them out loud. Now they have homework. Psalms has some really cool names for God. "Rescuer" "Provider" "Refuge" They are to find a verse that describes God that goes along with all the feelings they wrote down. We'll see.

We headed to Sonic to play some volleyball...the court was rained out. So we went to Target. Each pair of students was challenged to buy the weirdest thing they could find under 3 dollars. I stood at the front with my Church credit card as teams came up with their weird gifts: ties; medicines; band aides; microphones; baby food. It was interesting.

It was a good night. I was pretty happy with how it went, even though I spent the whole day/weekend at the Rodeo.

RANDOM THOUGHTS:

CSI: Miami might be the worst TV show of all time. Does that guy ever say anything like it isn't earth shattering news.

Jayme Green starts his bike ride tomorrow: Pedal fast Jayme.

I really wished I was able to fight this weekend...