It was slightly alarming, to say the least. Three of the six barbed wire strands on the fence had clearly been compromised. So much so that, as I passed by, I was worried that any large bull that might happen to be in the vicinity could very easily push his bulk right through. I hurriedly scooted on by and continued my daily walk, relieved to put space between myself and that potential danger zone.
Imagine my surprise when, barely two hundred yards down the road, I came upon two bulls in a small patch of woods in that same pasture right up near the fence. One was one clearly the Alpha, and the other clearly the Beta. They were standing about thirty or so feet apart and each was bellowing.
Let’s just say that the massive Chi-Angus Alpha bull, weighing around 2500 pounds made for one impressive sight. He sported not an ounce of fat and was looking like a four-legged Arnold Schwarzenegger in his prime, with muscles stacked upon muscles stacked upon even more muscles. Fortunately, he appeared preoccupied with the seemingly empty pasture across the road, and not with me.
Nearby, the Beta bull, weighing probably 1800 pounds, also bellowed. Unlike the Alpha bull, however, he also repeatedly pawed the ground with his front hooves and shook his head back and forth, exactly like one would have expected to see from a bull in a bullfight arena.
Once again alarmed, I scooted on by as quickly as possible. I concluded that the two of them were acting like so many muscle men flexing on a beach in southern California back in the day. They were apparently competing for the affections of some unseen young heifer somewhere over in the next pasture.
I continued on my walk, and eventually made my full circuit. Needless to say, on my return trip, I was a bit apprehensive about having to pass by the two bulls once again. So I was more than a little relieved when I discovered the two of them no longer near the fence, but rather out in the middle of the pasture instead.
Only this time, they were not so much focused on some imaginary love interest over the hill as they were upon one another.
They were grunting and straining and butting heads incessantly. First one would gain the advantage and push and the other would give, and then vice versa. I paused to take in this incredible scene, assured that it was not something one was likely to behold very often. It was quite a bull session!
But as I continued standing there observing, however, I soon concluded that the larger bull, which I would have suspected could have easily whipped the lesser one into submission, was not the aggressor. Rather, it was the younger bull who kept on pressing the fight. The older, bigger, stronger bull was actually defending himself from the ceaseless, annoying, and wearying onslaught of the younger, smaller, and supposedly weaker bull.
I smiled to myself as I walked on down the road, smug in the knowledge that it was only a matter of time before “Big Boy” eventually had enough and flat out put “Junior” in his place. Knowing how annoying it can be to have someone continually needling you, the thought of the annoying lesser bull receiving his come-uppance pleased me somewhat.
Fast forward some twenty-four hours. It is now the next day; and I am again out walking. I soon see that the fence has been repaired. A short time and a short distance later, I encounter the farmer and his wife, who, together, own the two bulls. They were out tending to one of the bulls, who was clearly suffering from a broken right rear leg. Now, guess which bull it was. Was it the younger, smaller, and presumably far weaker Beta bull? No! It was in fact the older, larger, and arguably far stronger Alpha bull!
My heart broke as I viewed this once indisputable and unassailable proud monarch now lying prostrate upon the ground before everyone around him. Even as his owners extended him water and food by the bucketful, he laid there listless, sucking great gasps of oxygen into his lungs with each desperate wheeze. His seven year reign was ending in ignominy.
Wow! Who’d a thunk it?! And yet, there it was, in plain sight. The younger bull may have been out-weighed, out-matched, and out-classed, but he had one thing going for him!. He had clearly been far hungrier! As a result, at some point, and in some way, he had scored a lethal blow and delivered a “coup de grâce” to his supposed superior!
I thought about the old adage: “The wolf on the hill is far hungrier than the wolf on the top!”
I also thought about the fact that the Old Testament Book of Ecclesiastes, (chapter 3, verse 1) tells us that… “There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens.” Elaborating further, the writer goes on, stating (in verses 2-8) …
a time to be born and a time to die,
a time to plant and a time to uproot,
a time to kill and a time to heal,
a time to tear down and a time to build,
a time to weep and a time to laugh,
a time to mourn and a time to dance,
a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,
a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing,
a time to search and a time to give up,
a time to keep and a time to throw away,
a time to tear and a time to mend,
a time to be silent and a time to speak,
a time to love and a time to hate,
a time for war and a time for peace.
A short time later, thankfully, the grand old bull was out of his misery. Courteous of John Deere, his owners thereafter gave him an honorable burial. But no sooner had the dirt been piled over his body than the younger bull had already stepped into his role and assumed the position of the new reigning monarch over three whole pastures and the hundreds of cows and calves inhabiting them.
Smug in his newfound position, the once Beta but now Alpha bull is likely unaware that a fourth pasture contains about a dozen young bulls that are simply biding their time before they too have a chance of crossing the road into “Greener Pastures”! (Or if he is aware, he does not yet seem to appreciate the significance of what that implies for his own future.)
I share all of this because, even as I write this, it is arguable the most powerful man in the free world, the President of the United States, has now been made by subordinates within his own political party to step aside in order to be supplanted by a younger and more feistier generation.
“He who has ears, let him hear.” So said Jesus Himself in the New Testament of Gospel of Matthew, chapter 13, verse 9. In parallel passages, He also challenged those of us who have eyes to use them to see clearly.
Look around, my friend, and you will soon see that no matter who you are, no matter what heights you have obtained, no matter how impressive a sight you portend to display, you will likely not be atop the proverbial heap for long! No one ever has been. No one ever will be. Such is the fleeting nature of societal prominence within our shared existence.
Given this fact, might it not behoove all of us to focus a bit less on our worldly persona, and a bit more on our eternal significance? Yes, my friends, it certainly would!
It has been asserted that all dogs go to Heaven. Maybe so, maybe not. I suppose the same holds true for bulls. But whether or not either dogs or bulls ever get to dwell in that place where lions and lambs lie down together, I know I plan to go there one day and live forever, free from conflict and strife for all eternity.
In light of this, maybe it behooves me to change my own position on certain matters, chiefly focusing less on my fleeting place, position, and/or prominence in this world, and to focus more on all these matters in the world to come!
As I do, I will keep in mind that “the last shall be first, and the first shall be last”. After all, given the events I have witnessed over the past week, that seems the most appropriate position to hold!
SCRIPTURE:
https://biblehub.com/niv/ecclesiastes/3.htm;
https://biblehub.com/matthew/13-9.htm;
https://biblehub.com/mark/8-18.htm;
https://biblehub.com/matthew/20-16.htm.
Imagine my surprise when, barely two hundred yards down the road, I came upon two bulls in a small patch of woods in that same pasture right up near the fence. One was one clearly the Alpha, and the other clearly the Beta. They were standing about thirty or so feet apart and each was bellowing.
Let’s just say that the massive Chi-Angus Alpha bull, weighing around 2500 pounds made for one impressive sight. He sported not an ounce of fat and was looking like a four-legged Arnold Schwarzenegger in his prime, with muscles stacked upon muscles stacked upon even more muscles. Fortunately, he appeared preoccupied with the seemingly empty pasture across the road, and not with me.
Nearby, the Beta bull, weighing probably 1800 pounds, also bellowed. Unlike the Alpha bull, however, he also repeatedly pawed the ground with his front hooves and shook his head back and forth, exactly like one would have expected to see from a bull in a bullfight arena.
Once again alarmed, I scooted on by as quickly as possible. I concluded that the two of them were acting like so many muscle men flexing on a beach in southern California back in the day. They were apparently competing for the affections of some unseen young heifer somewhere over in the next pasture.
I continued on my walk, and eventually made my full circuit. Needless to say, on my return trip, I was a bit apprehensive about having to pass by the two bulls once again. So I was more than a little relieved when I discovered the two of them no longer near the fence, but rather out in the middle of the pasture instead.
Only this time, they were not so much focused on some imaginary love interest over the hill as they were upon one another.
They were grunting and straining and butting heads incessantly. First one would gain the advantage and push and the other would give, and then vice versa. I paused to take in this incredible scene, assured that it was not something one was likely to behold very often. It was quite a bull session!
But as I continued standing there observing, however, I soon concluded that the larger bull, which I would have suspected could have easily whipped the lesser one into submission, was not the aggressor. Rather, it was the younger bull who kept on pressing the fight. The older, bigger, stronger bull was actually defending himself from the ceaseless, annoying, and wearying onslaught of the younger, smaller, and supposedly weaker bull.
I smiled to myself as I walked on down the road, smug in the knowledge that it was only a matter of time before “Big Boy” eventually had enough and flat out put “Junior” in his place. Knowing how annoying it can be to have someone continually needling you, the thought of the annoying lesser bull receiving his come-uppance pleased me somewhat.
Fast forward some twenty-four hours. It is now the next day; and I am again out walking. I soon see that the fence has been repaired. A short time and a short distance later, I encounter the farmer and his wife, who, together, own the two bulls. They were out tending to one of the bulls, who was clearly suffering from a broken right rear leg. Now, guess which bull it was. Was it the younger, smaller, and presumably far weaker Beta bull? No! It was in fact the older, larger, and arguably far stronger Alpha bull!
My heart broke as I viewed this once indisputable and unassailable proud monarch now lying prostrate upon the ground before everyone around him. Even as his owners extended him water and food by the bucketful, he laid there listless, sucking great gasps of oxygen into his lungs with each desperate wheeze. His seven year reign was ending in ignominy.
Wow! Who’d a thunk it?! And yet, there it was, in plain sight. The younger bull may have been out-weighed, out-matched, and out-classed, but he had one thing going for him!. He had clearly been far hungrier! As a result, at some point, and in some way, he had scored a lethal blow and delivered a “coup de grâce” to his supposed superior!
I thought about the old adage: “The wolf on the hill is far hungrier than the wolf on the top!”
I also thought about the fact that the Old Testament Book of Ecclesiastes, (chapter 3, verse 1) tells us that… “There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens.” Elaborating further, the writer goes on, stating (in verses 2-8) …
a time to be born and a time to die,
a time to plant and a time to uproot,
a time to kill and a time to heal,
a time to tear down and a time to build,
a time to weep and a time to laugh,
a time to mourn and a time to dance,
a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,
a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing,
a time to search and a time to give up,
a time to keep and a time to throw away,
a time to tear and a time to mend,
a time to be silent and a time to speak,
a time to love and a time to hate,
a time for war and a time for peace.
A short time later, thankfully, the grand old bull was out of his misery. Courteous of John Deere, his owners thereafter gave him an honorable burial. But no sooner had the dirt been piled over his body than the younger bull had already stepped into his role and assumed the position of the new reigning monarch over three whole pastures and the hundreds of cows and calves inhabiting them.
Smug in his newfound position, the once Beta but now Alpha bull is likely unaware that a fourth pasture contains about a dozen young bulls that are simply biding their time before they too have a chance of crossing the road into “Greener Pastures”! (Or if he is aware, he does not yet seem to appreciate the significance of what that implies for his own future.)
I share all of this because, even as I write this, it is arguable the most powerful man in the free world, the President of the United States, has now been made by subordinates within his own political party to step aside in order to be supplanted by a younger and more feistier generation.
“He who has ears, let him hear.” So said Jesus Himself in the New Testament of Gospel of Matthew, chapter 13, verse 9. In parallel passages, He also challenged those of us who have eyes to use them to see clearly.
Look around, my friend, and you will soon see that no matter who you are, no matter what heights you have obtained, no matter how impressive a sight you portend to display, you will likely not be atop the proverbial heap for long! No one ever has been. No one ever will be. Such is the fleeting nature of societal prominence within our shared existence.
Given this fact, might it not behoove all of us to focus a bit less on our worldly persona, and a bit more on our eternal significance? Yes, my friends, it certainly would!
It has been asserted that all dogs go to Heaven. Maybe so, maybe not. I suppose the same holds true for bulls. But whether or not either dogs or bulls ever get to dwell in that place where lions and lambs lie down together, I know I plan to go there one day and live forever, free from conflict and strife for all eternity.
In light of this, maybe it behooves me to change my own position on certain matters, chiefly focusing less on my fleeting place, position, and/or prominence in this world, and to focus more on all these matters in the world to come!
As I do, I will keep in mind that “the last shall be first, and the first shall be last”. After all, given the events I have witnessed over the past week, that seems the most appropriate position to hold!
SCRIPTURE:
https://biblehub.com/niv/ecclesiastes/3.htm;
https://biblehub.com/matthew/13-9.htm;
https://biblehub.com/mark/8-18.htm;
https://biblehub.com/matthew/20-16.htm.