“The day’s go by. I can feel ‘em flying like a hand out the window in the wind.” It’s been some time since I sat down to write. The full days and short weeks have me wondering where time went, but I think Keith Urban’s lyrics summed it up well. I can’t say it’s felt like time has flown by, except for writing to you all.

Last time we got to catch up about stormy skies and sunny sides, expressing the beauty and growth in both. Since then, I’ve been averaging about 2 oil changes per month, with my record week being 3000 miles in 8 days. I left the last day of June for some deliveries in Wyoming. Ended up in Livingston, MT to see my good friend Giulia, the Italian hat maker. She took me to the Livingston rodeo and shaped me two beautiful new hats!

From there, I went to Red Lodge, MT to catch my friend Tiffany in the 4^th of July matinee performance. Her team ropers drew three performances that day. She took the big rig to Livingston, and I followed the guys to Cody, WY, just in time to watch them rope, unboot horses, load up, and head back to Livingston. I drove south and made it back to Colorado that night.

We moved warehouses in Colorado during our busiest month, trucking inventory about 30 minutes away. It doesn’t sound like much, but when we still were shipping and fulfilling orders, it made for some interesting days pulling from two warehouses. We finished the move with no major fiascos, and plenty of fulfilled orders. Blessed to have a business that continues to grow and a team that works every day to be sure every customer has their expectations exceeded.

For some time, a sport I had yet to try was boxing, and I was looking for a gym I could sport at. I had taken a few kickboxing classes, but never really learned the fundamentals. I found a gym in Fort Collins that teaches classes on the bag, no sparring, and does functional training as well. The hand eye coordination has been coming across with my team roping. Though I haven’t turned a steer since I left Arizona, I’ve dedicated time every day to roping the dummy. It’s a great release from the day, and I’ve enjoyed training my loop and positioning more and more than I ever have.

The last week of July I went home for a quick trip to Nebraska then flew to Arizona for my church’s 10-year celebration of being in revival. The longer I’m a member, the more I realize how little I know and how much more there is to pursue in the Lord. The weekend was a celebration of so much, both in Fresh Start, and in my own walk. But there’s also so much more. The race is still being run.

August has historically been a shifting month in my life. In previous years, there have been major moves, career changes, and life catalysts. My mom told me there’s a strong statistic correlating with birthdays and major life moves. I can’t say that I’m a statistic person when it comes to life shifts, but it has been a month of more. I’ve felt a weight, not in a bad way, but positively to dig in to the more. Have you ever felt that pull?

 As I write this, it’s becoming more apparent that I’m still figuring out what the more entails. It’s incredibly simple, yet complex and deep. I can’t quite put it into words, though I’ll do my best for the sake of you reading this. It all started getting deep when I was in deep, cleaning pens. Yes, literally scooping poop.

The family I’m staying with has asked me to caretake here and there. And cleaning pens for five horses lends itself to a lot of thinking time. Having worked for Tiffany during the NFR in Las Vegas, it impacted my work ethic when you know you’re taking care of the top horses in the world. It seems silly, but whenever I’m doing simple work, like cleaning pens, I think about if a world champion pulled up in their rig, would they want their horses to get out here?

As I meticulously was picking through pens, I started to think about other arenas of my life, and what I felt I was doing extremely well. The questions stirred in me, “Does it really matter? If I wasn’t doing those things, would anyone actually care?” The thoughts ruminated. In one trail of thinking, I thought, well I’m not the first one who has ever served my customers. They would probably find a way without me. I started to realize I actually don’t know how much it matters, much like I don’t know how much it matters how well I clean these pens, especially if someone else would think it’s not worth the extra effort.

Now it may seem mundane to ask the question in reference to cleaning pens, but the question still crosses over into much more meaningful scenarios. Does anyone care? I still haven’t answered the question in my own life. And I think we have all been here with at least one aspect in our lives. Here’s the simple answer I’ve come to: people may not care.

It may seem heavy at first, but there’s a lot of freedom in realizing that whatever effort we are putting in may not matter at all to anyone else who sees it, or doesn’t see it. But does it matter to the Lord? Absolutely. He’s the one we run our race for, not anyone else. We can inspire others, but we can’t do it for them, and no one else can do it for us. If God is asking you for the more, He has more for you. And you can’t put the judgement of that on anyone else.

What you’re being called to may not matter to anyone else, but God chose you for it. He needs you to take hold of it. And do it whole heartedly for Him. Others may not care, nor understand it. And that’s part of the journey: not letting others’ approval dictate what’s important to your walk in this season. Though the days may seem to go by like a hand out the window in the wind, know that the Lord speaks to the wind and it obeys Him. Will you stay obedient regardless of who cares or accolades you for it? There’s more, and all you have to do is keep pursuing it. Keep going. And I’ll keep writing; a little more frequently than this little dry spell we’ve had. See you next week.