Are We Like Cows???

April 13, 2025

The other day, I paused from some sermon prep to get a cup of coffee and to take a peek out our front door. When I looked out, I saw something that wasn’t supposed to be there. In fact, there were several somethings that weren’t supposed to be there. I had a front yard full of company. Company of the bovine kind. In other words, some of my neighbor’s cows had escaped and were enjoying the lush, green grass of my front yard. We have several folks living close by who have cows, so I had no idea to whom our bovine interlopers belonged. One of my neighbors, Johnny, runs cows, and sometimes, he separates calves from the herd and puts them in a holding pen behind our house. I assumed these escapees were his calves, so I decided to do the neighborly thing and head them back down toward the pen. I learned something very quickly. Calf number four was hard-headed. Every time I would get the calves headed in the right direction, calf number four would wander off in the opposite direction, taking one or two other calves along with it. I would no more get them turned around and going again when ole number four and company would take off on their own again. After several minutes of attempting to cattle drive, I said, “Phooey with this; I’ll call Johnny and let him come get his own cows.” About this time, I saw Marie’s car coming down the driveway, so when she got down to me, I asked her to call Johnny. Turns out, the calves didn’t belong to Johnny after all; they belonged to the neighbors next door, and Johnny had already notified them about their wandering cows. A few minutes later, the owners arrived, and the two of them got the calves turned around and safely back home. I learned several things in my feeble attempt at cowboying. First, don’t assume. I thought the calves were Johnny’s, but they weren’t. If I had been successful in my cattle drive back to Johnny’s holding pen, I would have moved those calves to their second wrong place. So, before taking action to solve a problem, be sure you have your facts straight. Second, it’s hard to drive cows by yourself, especially if you have a calf number four who wants to do his own thing and wants to influence others to do his own thing with him. Whether it's cattle driving or something else, it’s usually best to have help. As Ray Kroc said, “None of us is as good as all of us.” Finally, I wondered if the Lord feels the same way about me as I felt about calf number four, because I too, tend to wander off and do my own thing. Y’all have a blessed week, and look out for cows . . . Bro. Andy