WHAT DID YOU EXPECT?

RIDIN' FOR THE BRAND

It takes a lot of work to conduct a cowboy match. There is little wonder the powers that be are always
asking for folks to help. My home club at Gunsmoke, Texas has an old west town, a part of which makes
up the shootin’ range. Looking up the street you see two rows of buildings facing each other. Main street
is about 75 feet wide and the buildings on the right are real while the buildings on the left do not have a
back wall in them. Walk in the front door of the jail and your look’n at the shoot’n range. There is a
mercantile, a bank, a gun shop, a saloon, a hotel, and a mine. Of course, no respectable range would be
complete without an “OK Corral.” All of these buildings on both sides of the street are connected with a
board walk. It takes a lot of effort in the maintenance department just to keep all this from falling down. I
hope one day to add a church to the row of real buildings.
It seemed that every time there was an event calling for announcements one of the top items was a call
for volunteers. It didn’t much matter what the skill level was, they could use the help with all the work.
I was having a lot of fun dressing up and play’n cowboy. It’s not everyday that you meet a preacher
carrying the name of “Dogie” walk’n down Main Street with a pair of 45’s on his hip. With all the
announcing of the need for help my conscience begin to bother me a mite. I’ve never been much for this
volunteering stuff, but it begins to look like working was a better choice than the wrestling match I seemed
to be constantly engaged in. Since I am officially retired, there seemed to be little reason not to. There
was another lesson from the Lord.
Now it did not take long for me to realize, “The rest of the story …” as Paul Harvey used to say. Seems
there are two distinct groups of people, those who work and those who criticize. In this environment, the
critics don’t work and the workers don’t criticize, not where anyone would listen anyhow.
I’m one of those folks whose glass is always half full. Even with that heavy dose of reality I received from
so many years in law enforcement, I prefer to think the best of the partners I’ve chosen. After all, I’m a
better judge of character than to choose people who do not meet my expectation. And then I’m always so
disappointed when they act like humans and do something I didn’t expect – like hurt my feelings.
Right along with my character judging abilities is my ability to handle criticism. Not! I have always had a
problem dealing with outright criticism, especially when it’s coming from someone who can’t do it any
better and doesn’t have a clue on how to be constructive. Being a ‘good-ole-boy’ just didn’t seem to
qualify for the right to criticize.
Then I remembered something Jesus said, "..Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those
who are sick.” (Matt 9:12b, NKJ) I may be having fun and I may love what I’m doing, but – I was here as
God’s amateur physician. My job was not to replace that rotted board in the boardwalk but to model
Christian character. How do you do that? How do you love the sinner and hate the sin and model that
behavior to someone who has never seen it and doesn’t know what you are doing? Demonstrate your
dislike for the sin and it is interpreted as your dislike for the person. Come on God, I need a little help
here.
That help came from a most unexpected source, my wife. I was complaining to Prissy about the dilemma
when she looked at me in wide-eyed disbelief. “What do you expect,” she asked. “There’re lost. Lost
people act like lost people.”
We do that, you know. We go through each day thinking that most folks are trying to get through the day
the same way we are. We struggle to live by the standard God has given us. That is called Christian
ethics. The truth is we meet more lost people during the day than we do Christians. Why would they be
trying to live by Christian ethics, they are not Christians? Prissy had it right; lost people do act like lost
people.

© Carl H. Lenz, 2007

What Did You Expect?