Cowboys in Heaven
Deep Thought: He was a cowboy, mister, and he loved the land. He loved it so much he made a woman out of dirt and married her. But when he kissed her, she disintegrated. Later, at the funeral, when the preacher said, “Dust to dust,” some people laughed, and the cowboy shot them. At his hanging, he told the others, “I’ll be waiting for you in heaven - with a gun.”
I want to share an e-mail that I received that really explains why we do what we do:
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Pastor,
Hey to be honest I don’t know why I’m writing you this letter, well in part to say thanks. I moved to Destin two years ago. I was trying to hold together a marriage that was in crisis and well Destin seemed a nice change from [city, state]. When I was a kid I grew up in the church, I even toured with a Christian rock band in high school as a singer. When I was 18 my mom left my dad for our preacher. It was really a shocking moment in my life. It absolutely crushed my father and I don’t know if I even believed in God any more at that time. I had a full ride music scholarship to a Christian school but after a few months, I dropped out to go to [another city] to pick up singing there.
Shortly after I was married. I liked that I had a few kids. I started a business; on the outside life was good. I made a lot of money; had nice things; my wife and I were very social and had lots of friends, but inside I was as cold as a stone. I had trust issues stemming from my mother and the preacher, and on top of that my wife was an alcoholic getting worse by the day. So seven years into it with our marriage completely falling apart we moved to Destin. I guess it was fight or flight, well we ran! That’s I guess what first brought me to shoreline. I had hoped that some how God could fix everything, in the end my wife left me and the kids for some guy she met in rehab. I know it sounds crazy, but you can’t make this stuff up!! So we went back to [city] for a while, my boyhood home, to kind of regroup. In that time I met [2nd wife] who is a Christian woman, she does not drink, just a great girl, sometimes crazy but you can’t get everything!!! We have been married almost a year, and when I came back to Destin we started back at shoreline. It has been really cool, my wife is from [Eastern European country]so your teaching has really helped her coming from an orthodox background. I want to tell you that you are the first pastor that I have had any respect for in ten years. Thank you for being real.
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Love this stuff. People who are far from God being restored again into a relationship with God. I love that people like this will be in heaven. Hopefully, though, that cowboy won’t be there with a gun.
* The names have been omitted protect the identity. The cowboy is fictitious and any resemblance to a real person is purely coincidental.
