It may not be the rodeo capital of the world, but Shipshewana, Indiana, hosted an action-packed, cow-punchin' event I'll always remember.

The pros there made it look easy, but trying to lasso a calf in just three tries (while being stop-watched) is no easy task. Once lassoed, the real fun began. The cowboys had to tie up the calf's legs and "brand" it with white paint.

But not one of those calves had the slightest interest in being tied up, so they raised plenty of dust. We saw one team lasso their calf almost immediately. In just a few more seconds, they had the hooves all tied up.

But no sooner had the cowboys wrapped up the legs of that calf—victory at hand—when the thing burst free of the ropes and raced around the arena, mocking the cowboys (now on the ground) while delighting the crowd. In one swift kick, that poor team went from most points to no points.

Those dusty, disappointing failures reminded me of a few of my own. That unraveled rodeo moment pictures our battle with besetting sin. Like a good cowboy or cowgirl, we've prepped to fight it. We're prayed up, read up, and fired up.

We're sure we've kicked that bad habit or got that annoying temptation tied up. And then—boom! We’re knocked into the dirt, sitting on our spiritual rear-ends.

Aren't you glad God doesn't keep score with a stopwatch? Aren't you grateful we're not disqualified because we've messed up two—or even twenty-two times?

In the rodeo of life, the thing that matters most is the presence of God—and the gift of His grace. So, by all means, let’s keep up our struggle against sin. But when we fail, let’s climb out of the dust and into God’s grace. Because there's always grace for cowboys--like us.

He has saved us and called us to a holy life—not because of anything we have done but because of his own purpose and grace. This grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time.  -2 Timothy 1:9