{"id":2572,"date":"2023-04-28T07:37:45","date_gmt":"2023-04-28T11:37:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/js1cd06kre.onrocket.site\/?p=2572"},"modified":"2023-04-28T07:37:45","modified_gmt":"2023-04-28T11:37:45","slug":"riding-fence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/2023\/04\/28\/riding-fence\/","title":{"rendered":"Riding Fence"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

To listen to this reflection as a podcast,\u00a0<\/em>click here<\/a>.
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Cattle are not the brightest lights in the barnyard chandelier.\u00a0
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As Winnie the Pooh might describe them, they are creatures \u201cof little brain.\u201d But in one regard they are absolutely brilliant \u2013 the idiot savants<\/em> of all livestock, as one cattle owner describes them.
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If there\u2019s a weak place or hole of any kind in a fence or enclosure, they will find it and exploit it.\u00a0
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And every other cow or bull is sure to follow.
\u00a0
It\u2019s what they do.
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The result is that these huge creatures walk into a world where they are singularly defenseless and ill-equipped to meet their own needs.\u00a0 And it might take days to round them up.
\u00a0
Cattle owners must therefore be committed to \u201criding fence.\u201d\u00a0
\u00a0
Traditionally, for cowboys, that means sitting atop a horse for hours on end, with saddlebags full of hammers and staples, monitoring the condition of every foot of fencing.\u00a0 On the biggest ranches out west that can mean miles and miles of barbed wire.\u00a0 It\u2019s a long and lonely job.
\u00a0
Riding fence might also provide an excuse to get away from circumstances and people one would rather not face.\u00a0 That seems to be the significance of these words from Desperado<\/em>, the hit song by the Eagles:
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Desperado, why don\u2019t you come to your senses<\/em>
You\u2019ve been out ridin\u2019 fences for so long now<\/em>
\u00a0
Technology is gradually ushering in changes.\u00a0 These days, riding fence is more likely to be accomplished by remote control drones than on horseback.
\u00a0
But the task remains the same.\u00a0 You find the weak places and fix them.\u00a0 It\u2019s a mission of love: protecting creatures who don\u2019t know how to take care of themselves.
\u00a0
Human beings are spiritual idiot savants.\u00a0 <\/em>We are brilliantly gifted at figuring out how to screw up our own lives.
\u00a0
This is not an issue of intelligence.\u00a0 People with high IQs and advanced degrees and worlds of experience \u2013 men and women we presume should know better \u2013 have a wonderful knack for finding escape clauses in God\u2019s commandments and loopholes in the creeds of common sense.
\u00a0
It\u2019s what we do.
\u00a0
We walk away from the security of community \u2013 \u201ccoloring outside the lines\u201d is how we like to put it \u2013 and end up having to be rescued from circumstances that once looked so promising when we were standing on the other side of the fence.
\u00a0
Sometimes people chafe at the restrictions on human behavior that are part and parcel of spiritual life.
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Think of it this way:\u00a0That\u2019s just God riding fence.\u00a0
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His goal is to ensure that at day\u2019s end we\u2019re all thriving in the right pasture.
\u00a0
And even learning how to help others realize that God\u2019s \u201cboundaries\u201d are actually some of his most significant gifts of grace.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

To listen to this reflection as a podcast,\u00a0click here.\u00a0Cattle are not the brightest lights in the barnyard chandelier.\u00a0\u00a0As Winnie the Pooh might describe them, they are creatures \u201cof little brain.\u201d But in one regard they are absolutely brilliant \u2013 the idiot savants of all livestock, as one cattle owner describes them.\u00a0If there\u2019s a weak place or hole of any kind… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2573,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[594],"class_list":["post-2572","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-boundaries"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2572","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2572"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2572\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2574,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2572\/revisions\/2574"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2573"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2572"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2572"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2572"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}