ON A WESTERN TRAIL: GOTTA HIGH-TAIL IT OUTA HERE

Saturday, January 07, 2012

GOTTA HIGH-TAIL IT OUTA HERE

Stephen Bly

Once when I was in downtown Chicago, I noticed an old boy giving a café cashier a tough time. He refused to pay for his supper. Shouts and curses flew both directions. Then, a police car pulled up front. The man bolted through a swinging door into the kitchen. When the policeman entered, the cook shouted, “He high-tailed it out the back door!”

I don’t know if they ever caught the man, but I very much doubt if any of those Chicagoans, including the citified cook, ever saw a thousand pound cow who chews her cud in peace one minute, then shoots her tail in the air and takes off on a dead 30mph run down a canyon or draw.

High-tailing. . .a good cowboy term that’s been loaned out to the world. It means to depart all of a sudden, without ceremony. In the Old West, if you high-tailed away from a band of bushwhackers or out of a swollen arroyo or flash flood, that’s common sense.

The Bible says certain situations require you to high-tail it outa here. . .when a red flag’s raised or when your very up close and personal selfish greed’s about to get goosed. You can be sure it’s a scam of the enemy.

“Oh, Timothy,” St. Paul says, “you are God’s man. Run from all these evil things and work instead at what is right and good, learning to trust Him and love others .... ” (I Timothy 6:11 TLB).

Scenes confront you when it's not the moment to dally around, waiting to get roped in or tangled in the brush. Figure out when’s the right time to run.