You don't have to be Stephen, but be somebody.

Today's Readings lead us down the road of reflection. Do we believe? Do we truly believe? And is believing alone enough?

If one truly does believe, they won't stop there. The desire for action burns in the heart of believers. And so those seeking God's ways can never stop at simply believing. Stephen understood this, spoke of this, lived this and died by it as well. He was the first to die for Christ. The first martyr.

The gospel reading from today also deals with belief. Are we seeking bread just to satisfy our growling bellies? Or do we yearn for more than that, something larger than ourselves? Only you can answer that question for you. And only me for me.

Build faith by building character. Build character by resisting the small injustices in life. Just pick one today, like gossip. And serve. Serve Him by backing Him up in your daily life. Be Somebody. Be the person He made you to be.

Related Reading:
- Building Faith with Consistancy

Kentucky-Like Equine Incentive Program In Texas?

House Bill 1881 has passed the Texas House of Representatives and is headed to the Senate.

Kentucky successfully instituted an incentive program for quarter horse breeders in 2007. You can read all about it here.

Almost certainly inspired by the success in Kentucky, Texas State Representative Sid Miller authored HB 1881.

- Here is the history of the bill.
- House Bill 1881 as it was when it passed the House April 23, 2009
- The vote was 144:Y - 1:N and 1 present and not voting

Basically, this bill requires horse breeders to pay "not more than $30" into the program which will then "grant incentive awards" to owners of eligible foals. This could be great for AQHA horse shows since there is currently no compelling monetary reason to show other than improving the desirability of the genetics of winning horses.

But, here are a couple of questions I have for our law makers:

• What happens if breeders do not submit there intention to not participate in the program?

- The bill states that in order to not participate, horse breeders would have to submit a letter to "the department not later than the 30th day before the owner's annual breeding report is due to the applicable breeders' association". This just sounds like a huge headache for many Texas horse breeders.

• Who is the regulating body behind this?

- The Kentucky Quarter Horse Assoc. regulates their incentive program. They have one main prupose - to improve quarter horse activity in KY. What other motivations could Texas government have. I posit that they are probably more concerned with collecting fees than they are the preservation of the horse industry in TX.

See the miraculous in the common

"The invariable mark of wisdom is to see the miraculous in the common." ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

Today is just another day. Surely you've all been there. . . You take a trip, celebrate an accomplishment, experience a loss, form a new relationship and guess what, life goes on. Be mindful of those days when nothing is happening. Those are the days when all your exciting days are being planned. Those are the days when you have to rejoice in the grind.


Luke is a three-year old that is in that inbetween stage. He is really riding around great. He has a smooth crossing over turn-around and a great stop.

But now it's time to move on. He's learning to be a calf roping horse. He has plenty of gas, and lots of cow. But right now, we're in the grind. He gets lost every now and then, sometimes he's a little late finding his stop, etc. These are all normal things with young horses, but that doesn't make it any easier to stomach. I'd rather be showing him at a horse show or entered in a rodeo. This is the hard part.

These are the days that lead up to the "big day". These are the days that nobody sees. This is the grind. But in the grind, there is greatness.

In Today's Readings, there are two instances of being aware of the spectacular that lies within normal everyday things.

First the apostles rejoice in being punished for the sake of the name of Jesus Christ. They are simply doing the things that Jesus told them to do. They are called before the Sanhedrin and flogged for it.

There are two things to pull from this. First, punishment isn't always punishment. And second, they would never have had the chance to suffer for Christ's sake had they not diligently worked on his behalf in the temples and in their homes during the days leading up to their "punishment".

In the Gospel Reading today Jesus shares the five loaves and two fish with the crowd. What amazes me with this story really isn't part of the story. It's something that Fr. Ed shared with us. Here is Jesus, the Son of God. He could divine a steak dinner for every man and child present if he wanted to. But the scholars teach a different kind of miracle. In those days everyone traveled with a little bit of food. An emergency ration. The miracle that occurs here is that Our Lord was able to convince everyone there to share their rations with other people. Think about this. Can you imagine getting 5,000 people together and convincing them all to help feed one another. Truly that would be more difficult than divining a loaf of bread for everyone. To convince, on a normal day, normal folks to love and care for one another. Truly that was the miracle.

Solemn Thursday

Two eighteen wheelers are neck and neck, an oversized load dragging the blades to one of T. Boone Pickens wind energy mills, mobile home after mobile home, even a honda civic with a brush guard . . . all going at least 85 mph. West Texas traffic is a little different than any where else in the state. It's incessant.

But, just north east of exit 400 time stood still for a generous gathering of quiet country folk dressed in black. Some were overwhelmed by their loss, some just reminded of what's in store for them, but all of them struck by the hope they have in Christ. After all, it's only a matter of time.

It was a day to remember Marvin F. Shurley. Pastor Lewis Allen, of Sonora, delivered a short graveside remembrance since we had all just come from the service in town. It was difficult to hear as car, truck and motorcycle after car, truck and motorcycle kept barreling down I-10 topping 90 mph. But then we bowed our heads for the final prayer.

Traffic stopped. It was awe inspiring to say the least. As Pastor Lewis spoke for all of us as we lifted our friend to Our Lord, there wasn't a car in sight. Silence. Then a breeze drifted through the gravestones and cowboy hats to rattle the leaves as Lewis got things wrapped up for ol' Marvin. And just as he did wrap it up in Our Lord's precious name, so did the silence wrap up and roaring highway traffic commence.

No one else spoke of it, but surely there were more who noticed. It was God's moment of silence. And rightly so. Mr. Shurley was a unique man. Good. Diligent. Determined. Entrepreneurial and Kind. Read the obituary if you'd like to know more about Marvin.

Unfortunately, you won't get the whole story. I'm not sure it could be told. As I stood and listened to Louis Balas tell Pastor Allen how well he did the service and that Marvin would have appreciated it, I think Pastor Allen said it best.

"Well, I am certainly honored to have the respect of someone like Marvin, " he said.

I wish I had the benefit of knowing him better, but there are two things I'll never forget. His two-door Cadillac and an evening I spent with him on a back porch in Fredericksburg, Texas. I had known him as a rancher and pioneer in the meat goat industry until that night. After that I thought, hell he's a philosopher and politician wrangler. We discussed everything from the types of people it takes to stick with ranching horses, cattle, goats, sheep or whatever all the way to motivating politicians in Washington, D.C. to take actions that benefit the agricultural industry here in Texas that Marvin evidently felt responsible for.

Many of us that are involved in ag owe Mr. Shurley a thank you and don't even know it. But don't worry, he wouldn't hold it against you. He lead a rough life. Very rough. Right until its end. And you'd be hard pressed to catch him without a smile on his face and one hellofa conversation in his mind.

Thanks for turning down the volume today, Lord so we could have a chance to say goodbye.

Usually I head to the ranch on Thursdays. Here are some of those stories:

• Cowboy Consistancy in South Texas - Part 1


• Working Cattle and Riding Colts: Thursday Reality Check


• Calf Roping - Rough Trail Drives - And Family

God so loved . . . Earth Day

Happy Earth Day!

"For God so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten son . . ."

The gospel from Today's readings shares the most quoted bible verse of all time. John 3:16. What's interesting is something that Fr. Ed shared this morning. It isn't translated as "For God so loved man"; It's "For God so loved the world".

"One could not pluck a flower without troubling a star." - Loren Eiseley

Loren was a man born in Lincoln, Nebraska in 1907 who understood what it meant to live. That the secret to life is living. Only by flailing headlong into life can one even begin to understand it. We really don't even know what we need until we have needed it, or know what we've had until it's gone. Loren's books reflect this mentallity and the fact that he's most widely known as a naturalist writer is ironic at best since his grasp for the love of his world so closely reflects God's love for the same world.

God loves us. There is no doubt. But His Creation was here first. We were made in His image to enjoy it - To love it as he loved it. Let's take some time to be a better steward of His masterpiece.

5 Best "Good Guys" in a Western Movie

It's hard to walk the line. Temptation is everywhere. We all fall, and we'll probably fall again. However, there are a few impervious to the will of Evil . . . even though they're fictional and never existed. ;)

Here's five of the best 'white hat' characters from a western movie. These guys walk the line.

Wil Andersen


Woodrow F. Call


Jim Craig


Mathew Quigley


Roy Rogers

I wanted to list 10, but pickins are slim when you're looking for good guys in a great western. If you know of some more, leave them in the comments. Just click the comments link below, or click the title of this post and scroll to the bottom.

Do you SEE?

Richard Miller was a great friend of my grandfather. He called him up one day and asked him if he had any roping calves at the ranch. "Why sure, " came the reply and Richard filled J.M. in on what he needed.

He was looking to purchase a new calf roping horse and needed a place to try him. Well, J.M. and Richard roped together all of the time and so this was no special occasion. He told him to just come on and that he'd see him when he got there.

Richard, J.M. and his father, John J. were having a typical truck bed conversation when the fella with the horse showed up. He got stopped, walked back to the trailer and untied the blood bay and backed him out. He was a good looking heavy-set quarter horse. Richard was pleased, but John J. let him know that that horse didn't look like he could run.

Well, they got the introductions and pleasantries out of the way and headed toward the arena. Richard mounted up and got warmed up while J.M. got some calves ready for him.

Richard backed the bay into the box and nodded his head and off they went. He and that stud rode right up in the middle of him and made a hellofa run about half way down the pen. After he got his calf untied, Richard walked back toward the box and called out to my grandfather, "You got some fast ones in there John?"

"Yea, but you ain't gonna catch him, " he called back only half joking. This little crossbred could drift across there and he had to go half way to catch the last one. Well, that wasn't going to deter Mr. Miller. He backed into the box again, nodded and the dirt went flying. A streak of brendel went drifting down the arena and when Richard got to the other end, he brought her back this way. That little heifer had her tail up and was rollin on back toward the calf roping box that Richard had just left when he finally caught up to her. He roped her and tied her down, but that was it.

He stepped off, loosened both cinches, and walked back to where J.M. had been turning out for him. Only roping two calves is not even close to a normal session with Richard.

"What are you doing, " asked J.M.

"Hell, I'm taking him back. He's a nice horse, but he's not gonna do me any good, " came the reply from Richard.

And that was the last time they saw old King. That's right, Mr. Hankins over in Rocksprings bought the horse not even a month or two after that day. He went on to be one of the cornerstone sires for the AQHA. A legend.

So was Richard so disciplined and focused that he new a horse like that wouldn't fit his program? Or did he miss the opportunity to diversify his horse business into the realms of breeding with one of the greatest sires of all time?

We'll never know if he saw what that horse could've been. I sure would have loved to have been there. One of the all time leading producers of running quarter horses . . . couldn't run a lick himself. You can only find that kind of irony in the horse business.

This story was recently relayed to me by my grandfather, but today's gospel reading reminded me to share it. Jesus is filling Nicodemus in on what he could be. Nicodemus saw himself as the calf horse that couldn't out run old grandpa, but Christ saw him as He made him. Worldclass. Born again of the spirit . . . and poised for greatness.