Ain't Spittin'

I am a sucker for a good western movie.  I always have been.  I do not really care for the ones that have graphic violence as the thing which carries the story forward.  I much prefer a strong weathered looking old cowboy, a herd of ornery cattle ready to stampede, a cattle drive with dangerous river crossings, and maybe a heroine who stays in the cowboy's mind and may even steals his heart.  Monte Walsh is one of the cowboy characters I love.  Toward the end of the movie when being a cowboy is no longer fashionable, he entertains the idea of joining a wild west show, but then dismisses the whole pretense of it with the words, "I ain't gonna spit on my whole life."

 

I sometimes finding myself looking at the church through the eyes of Monte Walsh.  The church we call "ours" is actually His and was bought into being by a powerful work of the Holy Spirit.  It has prevailed through all these centuries.  It has withstood the worst that humanity could throw at it, endured persecutions, and persisted through theological heresies.  It is of God.  It is His creation.  He is the One who sustains it and calls it into the future.  It is a church I have known.  It nurtured me as a child, baptized me, invited me into a relationship with Jesus, called me to preach the gospel, provided for me a place to serve God, and one day when my soul departs this body, I hope this body can rest a spell before the altar and the pulpit which has so ordered my life. 

There is much confusion in our church today.  Theological heresies abound.  Common consensus seems to have more authority than the Word of God.  Feeling good upon departure from worship is the mark of good worship.  The church continues to have rifts from within as its people become too focused on trivial pursuits instead of eternal ones.  Why should I stay?  Why not leave?  Why not sell out and become one of those who takes the road of political correctness even it means sacrificing theological integrity.  Like that old worn out looking cowboy, this old worn out looking preacher can only say, ""I ain't gonna spit on my whole life."