Are You A Cowboy Action Shooter?... Are You A Christian?...

When I began to ponder both of these questions in the middle of the night not so long ago, I was suddenly struck by how similar my thoughts and actions are on both. Do I act like a Christian? Do I live like a Christian? Do I know the rules that God has placed on my life when I accepted His gift of eternal life? Do I need to grow more in His teachings and spend more time in His Word? Do I need to better display the fruits of the Spirit? As I think of all that I am, and all that I need work on, the answer is a resounding “Yes”. I do truly love the Lord and know and believe that God sent His son to earth to die on the cross for my sins and if I only accept His love and gift of salvation, then I will be able to spend forever in heaven in His presence. What could be more wonderful than that?

Then my mind turns to my passion in being a cowboy action shooter, or in my case, a cowgirl action shooter. When I am playing this game that I have grown to enjoy so much, do I act like a cowboy shooter? Do I know the rules that are in place for this sport and for my safety and enjoyment? Do I display behaviors that tell others around me that I am practicing the “spirit of the game”? Have I taken steps to be assured that I am not a stumbling block to others as we participate, and do I play fair? Do I need to better my skills and broaden my understanding? And, do I need to learn more of how to become a better shooter? Again, I hear a resounding “Yes” to my questions.

Have you ever been around someone that talks a good game about their cowboy shooting exploits, but when it comes down to it, you ask yourself, have they actually experienced every aspect of the emotions, the settings they claim to have shot in, or some other reality that we so often get wake-up calls to while participating on the firing line? It is then you say to yourself, “Well, they may be a shooter, but they are not a cowboy action shooter.” They demonstrate that they do not even posses a basic knowledge or understanding of what it means to be on the firing line experiencing the pressure of an actual cowboy competition. Sadly, some of these folks are so busy trying to impress others of their great knowledge and abilities, they totally miss the reasons we are there. Instead of wanting to grow in this sport, they would rather make excuses for why they are there and for their poor performances. When you break it down and question their motives for even being there, it usually comes down to this statement, “Well, he may be a shooter, but he’s not a cowboy action shooting competitor”. Sadly, some of these folks passing judgment on others are the very people that are in a decision making roles for our clubs.

Is it the same with Christians? How many folks do you know that claim to be a “Christian”, but yet they are not even recognizable as such? They do not know God’s Word and what the rules are for living as a Christian. They display the sin of Adam (selfishness), rather than the “Fruits of the Spirit”, love and respect, which contributes to our inability to recognize them as Christians. They can be described as Paul says in the New Testament, (1 Tim 5: 13 They get into the habit of being idle and going about from house to house (club to club). And not only do they become idlers, but also gossips and busybodies, saying things they ought not to.) Do we not witness this in our cowboy clubs? How sad that so many other shooters become hurt and discouraged by these less-caring and selfish participants and end up just drifting away with little to no notice of their absence. Far too often these very folks claiming to be servants of the Lord are not that at all. They posses the same sin as the boasters we find on our posses from time to time. Telling us all how to do it, when they are revealed to be nothing more than fools.

Let us, as true Christians, guard against being a braggart, or one to cause another to stumble when we are shooting in a match. Rather, let us be encouragers, cowboys and cowgirls that build each other up. We may not be in the company of true Christians while on the firing line, and that is the case more often times than not, but we need to remember “we may be the only Jesus” they will ever see.