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 I
have just returned from a meeting on the west Texas plains, and
if I don’t kid the “Texacans” about something they will
think I am unfriendly. If I fail to convince them I really am
kidding, they become unfriendly. One thing about the high
plains folk, they may not have trees, grass, running creeks or
quiet peaceful days — but they have pride in their country.
They
like to get up early — get going — and when I complained
that it was dark and the moon was still high, they told me a
dust storm was in progress and I was looking at the sun. They
were just joking. When the storm came it got so dark we couldn’t
see the sun. I tried to take a shower but had to have mud chains
to get out of the bath room. The sand came through closed doors,
got into everything. It got into a closed suit-case, even into
the refrigerator — into the eggs in the refrigerator.
Prairie dogs sometime dig twenty feet up into the sand storm
trying to get out of their hole. Now I suppose I‘ll get a
letter accusing me of exaggeration. O.K., I’ll cut that to ten
feet.
Where
else (in the U.S.) are meeting announcements sent to brethren
300 miles away—and they come. Distance is close out there
(like northern dry cold is warm, even if it is cold). One fellow
said he liked that
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country because it afforded such good
fishing, 400 miles in any direction.
Don’t
think I am being unkind. I am just repeating stories they told
on themselves. The crowning insult came to me — when I learned
several families had moved there from Burnet.
But
I suspect that much of the enthusiasm, drive, and will-to-win
that characterizes the plains people come from their “habit”
of overcoming hard knocks. Maybe the country made that type of
people — or maybe that type is the kind that tackles such
country. God welded the descendents of Abraham into a great
nation through hardships and bondage — but he chose a man of
great faith for their beginning. When we shy away from great
challenge we may show an inner weakness, and avoid the very
thing that could help us.
Chastening
for righteousness sake will benefit saints who are exercised
thereby (Heb. 12:). “Lift up the hands which hang down” is
very good advice in any walk of life. We salute west Texans, and
all others who allow hard knocks to boot them toward success.
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