The Testimony
I was not raised in church. I grew up in a loving family and had a good home life. However, about the only time I went to church as I was growing up was if I spent the night with a friend whose family went to church. My parents believed in Jesus and told me the basics about him, but I didn't really know Him. I started playing in a country and western band at age 14 in night clubs and other venues. Places that wouldn't let me in the front door, now let me in the back because I was the drummer. As one can imagine, I had a lot of temptation opened to me at an early age.
I began riding bulls at age 15 and pursued the rodeo, honky tonk life with vigor. I did all I could to live up to the "outlaw cowboy" image, drinking, carousing, and anything else I could find to get into.
Before I would get on my bull in the chutes, I would always pray and ask God to keep me safe, etc. but I didn't really know who I was praying to. I just thought God was "the man upstairs" who wanted to ruin my fun and was waiting to "zap" me if I stepped out of line too often. I was also under the misconception that if I did enough good stuff to override the bad stuff, that I would somehow "squeek" into heaven. There were guys who came around witnessing, but I always found something else to do when they'd start talking all of that "born again" or "getting saved" stuff. I had my own ideas about who God was and how you got to heaven and didn't ever bother to check the Bible to see if they were telling the truth or not. Anyway, I figured that if I went to hell, I'd be among friends. I would pray for God's protection before I rode and then essentially say, "Ok God, I'll take it from here," when I was done. I was winning some money and doing pretty well at bull riding. I became obsessed with winning buckles and pretty much made Rodeo my god. You see the bible says that whomever you serve, that's whose slave you are and I worshipped the gold buckle. In my senior year in high school, I was in the running for first place for the year in YRA. I wasn't going to let anything stop me. Then, it happened. I received an injury on my first bull at the year-end finals and could not rodeo for about a year. I was knocked out of the running for first because it had been a close race all year. I was devastated. I had put so much store in rodeo that, once it was gone I didn't have anything to fill it's place. I started trying to fill the hole with other junk that the world had to offer, but everything just made me feel emptier.
When I finally started rodeoing again, I wasn't doing too well. A friend of mine invited me to a Lyle Sankey Rodeo School in Abbeyville, Kansas in 1985. My language was pretty bad at the time and my friend told me, "This is a Christian rodeo school, so you're going to have to clean up your language if you're going to go with me up there." I thought, "No problem, I can fake it for a few days." After all, this was a premeir school and a lot of good bullriders had come out of there, so I really wanted to go. You know, God has a way of revealing our hearts to us when we try to "fake it" and every time I would open my mouth, something wrong would come out. But these guys didn't even act like they heard it. They'd just smile and go on. At night they'd give testimonies, some would sing, some would tell funny stories, and we just had a ball. However, on the second night, one of the staff told a story about Jesus and about the torture that He went through for me, for my sins. He described the pain, the agony, and the heartbreak when He cried out, "My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me?" Then he told of the temple veil being ripped from top to bottom and how that meant that we no longer had to have a priest take our prayers to God but that the seperation between God and man had been done away with. He explained that "All have sinned and come short of the glory of God." Romans 3:23 and how "the wages of sin (what we deserve) is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus." Romans 6:23
Jesus Himself said in John 3:3 that, "unless you are born again, you shall not see the kingdom of heaven." This man painted such a graphic picture of what Jesus went through for my sins that, I tell you, by the time he got to the invitaion, I couldn't wait to go forward and give my life to Jesus. From that moment forward, that hole that I'd been trying to fill with the junk of the world went away and was made as if it was never there.
I was married a little less than a year later, in 1986, to my wife Melody and we've since been blessed with two beautiful children. Things haven't always been easy. Getting saved doesn't mean that life will be rosy and perfect. It doesn't even mean you won't have to struggle with temptations, but it does mean that you won't have to "go it" alone. No matter what happens in your life, whether friends
fail you, loved ones leave or pass on, through trials and hardships, Jesus will be by your side if you repent and ask Him into your heart. Jesus said, "These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world." John 16:33
I've been blessed to be involved with many ministries and God has allowed me to serve Him for over 20 years now. I am thankful to Jesus for shedding His precious blood for my sins and for saving me. He allowed me to compete in rodeo for over 18 years, but for the last 14 years of my rodeo career my priorities were greatly changed. God wants to be first in all we do, whether it's at home, work, sports, or where ever. If we do everything so as to bring glory to God, He will bless it. I pray that if you don't know Jesus as your Lord and savior, contact your local church, check out my bible studies page, contact me, or search your bible. It's a decision that we all must make for ourselves whether to accept Him or refuse and it's the most important one you'll ever make.