Southern-Fried Wisdom
All Hat, No Cattle
I grew up in Texas, Fort Worth and Lubbock to be exact. Both were cattle towns. The stockyards in Fort Worth were the gathering place for ranchers around Texas. Lubbock had stockyards as well. Really they were more places for the cows to be processed. As a kid growing up I learned to know what cows smelt like and how a wind from the wrong or right direction could remind you about all those cows nearby. Those two towns had an identity of being cattle towns. Well, with cows come cowboys. One day a cowboy hat led to a story from my grandpa.
We were in line at TG&Y, it was a store when I was a kid, and you can Google it if you don’t believe me. We were in line behind a guy who had a big, nice clean white cowboy hat on his head. His jeans were pressed and belt looked new. His boots were pristine and not a scuff or a spot on them. He was a perfect looking cowboy, the kind you find on a calendar page. My grandpa nudged me and leaned over when he was me staring at this “drugstore cowboy”. He whispered four simple words that I have never forgotten. “All hat, no cattle.” It is an awesome saying that I repeat a few million times.
What he was telling me was that the cowboy in front of me had a hat but more than likely did not own any cattle. He was putting that hat on hoping that no one asked how many head of cattle were in his herd. You see, he was a poser in today’s words. At least I guess that is what the kids say these days about fake people.
One day when Jesus was near some religious leaders of His day and he popped out a few words for them that cut to the bone. In Matthew 23:25 – 28 Jesus says:
25 “What sorrow awaits you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees. Hypocrites! For you are so careful to clean the outside of the cup and the dish, but inside you are filthy—full of greed and self-indulgence! 26 You blind Pharisee! First wash the inside of the cup and the dish, and then the outside will become clean, too. 27 “What sorrow awaits you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees. Hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs—beautiful on the outside but filled on the inside with dead people’s bones and all sorts of impurity. 28 Outwardly you look like righteous people, but inwardly your hearts are filled with hypocrisy and lawlessness. Matthew 23:25-28 (NLT)
He points out a few things to these religious leaders when He addresses their lives.
- You can’t drink anything good out of a dirty cup
- You have to clean the inside before anything good can come from the cup
- You can paint a tomb but it is still dying bones on the inside
- Before you go telling people how the outside should look, spend some time on yourself
You have to take time to be sure you have cleaned up your own life before you go telling others about their life. The first step to doing that is to ask God to help you clean up your own heart and spirit. 1 John 1:9 reads: “But if we confess our sins, he will forgive our sins, because we can trust God to do what is right. He will cleanse us from all the wrongs we have done.” There comes the time when must look within and realize that we are in need of God’s forgiveness to be made clean. There needs to be a cleansing of our heart and soul that is done when confess our sins to God. It is when we let God move within us and change our lives and hearts.
But, there is also the need to make sure we continually keep our hearts close to God so that a slow drift down the wrong path does not dirty our souls. Proverbs 4:23 tells us to guard our hearts above all else. What if those religious leaders had stopped to make sure their own hearts still longed for God and His words. Then they would have not got blasted by Jesus on this day. If they had just examined themselves they could have watched to make sure their hearts stayed clean and growing. That is the challenge for us. Will we confess our sins and guard our hearts to stay clean with God?