I showed up at this event to find that, instead of bulls, they had roping steers for us to ride. Great. Not only would my rope not fit, but they were too small and skinny to ever buck under our weight. But I kept my mouth shut, kept to myself and went about my business.

When it came time for me to ride, the announcer began this long, overblown, introduction about me riding a bull at the National Finals Rodeo in Las Vegas. I don't even know how he knew. I didn't tell him. Well, I'm hearing all this while I'm getting down on my 300#, slab sided, razor backed steer. I have to admit, I thought I was “way too good” to waste my time at this “back yard punkin-jumpin”. I didn't even recognize that I was getting “too big for my britches”. Oh, how God has a way of “setting us up”!

I nodded for the gate---the steer WALKED out---and I rolled off like a watermelon on a rail fence! The crowd went hilariously wild with laughter!

People were beating themselves laughing at the whole ordeal. I don't ever remember being more humiliated in my entire life! But you know what I am MOST embarrassed over? Instead of just taking that “bitter pill” and learning from it, I was more intent on salvaging my “reputation”. (As if I had one to salvage) I ran to the stock contractor and asked him to run another one in the chute for me. I would “show” them! Problem was, I already had. I just wasn't smart enough to recognize it.

I didn't get on anything else that night, and I don't ever remember feeling so utterly clumsy, stupid and mistreated as I felt then. Months went by and I could think about that incident, and still feel a twinge of pain. But it did me good. It made me look at a part of myself that I wouldn't have been willing to look at otherwise.

I have come to realize that how I “perform” in any area of my life, bears no
reflection on my worth as an individual. If I place my value in accordance to my performance, and I do bad---I'm depressed. If I do good---I begin to think I'm “hot snot on a wooden stick”! That makes me like a thermometer, where I am “up” or “down” depending on my circumstances. God wants us to be more like a thermostat, where we “set” the temperature instead of being moved by it! We can begin to be steadfast in Him, whether our performance is “hot” or “cold”.

And those people in the stands poking fun and criticizing? They will always be there. Don't worry about them. “Arm-chair quarterbacks” have never won a game.