Morning Devotional

June 20, 2005
"Mad Cows"   
    by Don Emmitte

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"Do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? Look at the birds of the air, they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?" (Matthew 5: 26-27).

It is not unusual to be driving along a country road in Texas and see a number of the cows in the field beside the road lined up looking at the fence. On one particular occasion I remember seeing one of the cows charge the fence menacingly. Usually we think of cows as contented and laid back. I wondered what was holding their attention and provoking such fear? What was raising their hackles? A dog? A deer? When I actually discovered the focus of their attention and fear, I laughed. Their fearsome stalker was an empty paper bag, being blown along the fence randomly with the wind. They were mad cows, though not the kind you're thinking of. They must have though the bag was alive.

As I thought about that silly sight, I wondered how often we chase after, charge at and ultimately suffer much stress over items that turn out to be no more than empty paper bags flitting in the wind? Sometimes we call them straw men: things we think we have to battle, but we really don't. I can think of many. The first one I think of is bad-drivers. Yes, we need to drive defensively and be on the lookout for other drivers doing stupid things. But since we all do stupid things on the road occasionally, when someone makes a turn without making a signal or speeds up while you are passing, let it go! Don't fume for two miles.

Then there's the empty bag of what will other people think. What will people think if I change my hair color? Or, shave my beard? Or grow it longer? What will people think?

If my son doesn't have a job? Or, if our house needs painting? Or, if I buy a red sports car? These are things you don't really need to worry about. Then there are those who worry so much about health, diet, and exercise they make themselves sick. Yes, these are all valid worries: but I am struck by how often those who are super careful about what they eat, staying trim, and following the latest health guru-then succumb unfortunately and tragically to cancer or heart disease.

There is the empty bag of worrying excessively about self. My schedule. My priorities. My family. My goals. How much I've had to suffer. Such persons are always first to tell their stories. Whether married or single, we need to learn the give and take of considering the needs of others as at least important as our own. Jesus had something to say about these empty bag kinds of worries. Clearly we are not to be anxious about them. This is not to encourage irresponsibility. Of course we have to work, drive defensively, take due care about our reputations, and so on. But just remember that God was watching those anxious, angry cows along the fencerow, too. If God cares about some silly cows, how much more does God care about you and me?