10/20/2026
“Give me a heart that never forgets why God placed me here!” 🩷🤠💙✝️
What if God never intended for rodeo to just be a sport. What if He also intended it to be a ministry?
Think about it.
The arena lights come on.
The chutes swing open.
The dirt starts flying.
The crowd gets loud.
But under all that noise, there are people carrying hard things no one even knows about.
The cowboy who smiles through a season of heartbreak.
The mama praying her child finds their way.
The teenager trying to figure out who they are and where they belong.
The family trying to hold it all together when life hasn't gone according to plan.
And right there, in the middle of the event is an opportunity.
An opportunity to love like Jesus.
To encourage like Jesus.
To see people the way Jesus sees them.
You don’t have to preach from a pulpit for people to experience the love of Jesus.
Sometimes ministry looks like a conversation behind the chutes.
Sometimes it looks like cheering for the kid who didn't win.
Sometimes it's noticing the person standing alone.
Sometimes it's choosing kindness when nobody is watching, or offering encouragement when someone is struggling.
It’s reminding a young cowboy that his worth has nothing to do with his last ride.
It's showing up with a heart that says, "You matter. You're seen. And you're loved."
That's the kind of faith that doesn't just talk.
It lives out loud.
Jesus didn't tell us to love people only when it was convenient, only when they looked like us, or only when they walked through the doors of a church.
He told us to love our neighbors.
And sometimes, our neighbors are standing in the dirt, wearing a cowboy hat, waiting for their turn to ride.
Matthew 5:16 tells us to let our light shine before others so they may see our good works and glorify our Father in heaven.
The light shines through how we
live.
Not just what we say or what we post or what we claim to believe.
But how we treat people when we have absolutely nothing to gain.
And maybe that's where rodeo becomes something bigger than rodeo.
Maybe the buckles, the bulls, the horses, and the arena lights are just the setting God has given us to reach people we might never meet anywhere else.
Maybe the real calling is to make sure that when people walk through those gates, they encounter a little more kindness, a little more hope, and a whole lot of Jesus.
I don’t just want people to remember my events. I want them to remember how they were loved and seen while they were there.
That can reach farther than we will ever know.
So yes, give me the Western way of life.
Give me the cowboys, the horses, the bucking bulls, and the dust in the air.
But above all else, give me a heart that never forgets why God placed me here.
The goal isn’t only to fill the stands. It’s for people to see Jesus.
🐂 Chelsey Nelms
0890 Bucking Bulls
