Temporary happiness can come from a buckle, eternal joy comes from God

Temporary happiness can come from a buckle, eternal joy comes from God

by | Feb 1, 2024 | Behind the Bucking Chutes

By Scott Hilgendorff / Cowboys of the Cross

It’s pretty common in the culture around us that people pursue what makes them happy. Half the advertisements on tv are showing people being made happy driving expensive trucks or using the latest phone upgrades.

We tell ourselves to chase our dreams or that we only have one life to live, so we should do whatever we need to make us happy.

We should cut loose the people who make us unhappy. We should surround ourselves with people who help us make our dreams come true.

It isn’t that God wants us to be unhappy, but these are lies that take our focus off of Him.

Matthew 6:19-21 Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, 20 but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

Verse 21 in particular makes it clear that what we chase reveals what we value the most—the pursuit of worldly happiness that is temporary and easily taken from us or destroyed, or the hope of eternal joy in Heaven.

It’s okay to have goals. How we work to achieve them can be done in a way that points people to Jesus and brings God glory. But when our happiness depends on winning a buckle at a rodeo finals or qualifying for the PBR and we don’t achieve that goal, it can be devastating for some of us.

And cutting people loose who we think hold us back from our dreams isn’t as Biblical as surrounding ourselves with mature Christians who can help us grow more like Jesus while working to restore broken relationships and pointing others to Jesus.

God isn’t asking us to be miserable in our time here. He knows there are going to be plenty times where we face challenges and hardships. He gives us teaching and encouragement in the Bible to help us get through those difficult times.

And He created what we call the fruit of the Spirit which are attributes that grow inside of us that show us our salvation is real as we become more and more like Jesus.

Galatians 5:22-23 22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.

Joy, as one of those fruits, can still be a temporary feeling but it’s something that can get stronger in us each time we feel it and it is largely tied to seeing and interacting with the world through our understanding of who we are as Christians and what the Bible teaches us.

Joy is much deeper than happiness and while there will be times we feel sadness, joy can always be found when we turn our attention to God and all the good that waits for us in Heaven. Pursuing joy brings glory to God while pursuing happiness is all about ourselves.

Psalm 16:11 You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.

Pointing to the sky glorifies God when we see Him in everything we do

Pointing to the sky glorifies God when we see Him in everything we do

by | Dec 7, 2023 | Behind the Bucking Chutes

By Scott HIlgendorff / Cowboys of the Cross

Without a Christian worldview, we’re going to struggle with how to glorify God in everything we do.

In a rodeo arena, you occasionally see a roughstock rider take a knee and point to God. Sometimes it’s only if he wins, sometimes it’s every situation that lets him get back on his feet. On the roping end, the cowboy will point to the sky after a good catch.

On the surface, these are ways the rodeo cowboy is giving glory to God but for many of us, aside from using “glory to God” as a hashtag on a social media post when something great has happened, those are the very few ways we openly give God glory.

Romans 11:36 For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.

This is just one of several verses that point us toward the importance of glorifying God through everything we do. In this instance, we are being reminded that nothing we do is accomplished without God.

A worldview comes from our background and the influences we have in our life that shape how we look at the world around us. A parent of young children might be influenced to look for danger all the time that could impact the children. A soldier looks at the world through his training. A horse trainer can find himself making decisions influenced by the cowboy and horse culture and the conservative politics that come with that.

For Christians, the first way we would should filter how we think about what is happening around us and the decisions that we make should be from our understanding of the Bible.

When we spend time learning what’s in the Bible, verses like this will begin to affect our worldview: Colossians 3:23-24 Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ.

This verse shows what a Christian worldview toward work looks like. We’re supposed to think about God and work in a way that would be pleasing to Him. That in turn will most often be pleasing to our employers, but it’s God who we are thinking of ahead of our employers.

And this view then applies to other parts of our life like how we compete while we’re at a rodeo or a horse show. We put everything into it but we do it in ways we know will please God.

The more we understand what is in the Bible and the more we make an effort to apply it, the more natural it becomes to honor God in everything we do.

Suddenly, that finger point to the sky is just a natural reaction. We begin to look for ways to show others how Jesus has impacted us by how we live our lives in the hopes it creates opportunities to tell others about a saving faith in him.

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