As a kid, one of my favorite tv shows was “The Rebel” (all you youngsters out there are going to have no clue there was ever such a show… it ran from 1959 to 1961… and you weren’t even born yet, or were still having your diapers changed!)

It featured the main character, Johnny Yuma, as an angry, rogue, former Confederate Army soldier drifting through a meaningless existence in 1860’s Wild West in search for his idenity. During his wandering he ends up helping out various settlers threatened by hostile Indians, crooked land developers, evil ranchers and various bad guys.

Yuma was haunted by his memories of the war and his wanderings were his attempt to find inner peace. Interestingly, his quest for serenity was assisted by his trademark double-barreled shotgun with a sawed-off stock and barrel.

One of the ongoing features of the show was Johnny writing in his journal of his travels and the people he meet along the way.

I was in Matthew 16:24-25 this morning. As is usual these days, I was surprised to find these verses in my Bible. I read it and suddenly it was as if I’d never seen it before. I might come back to this in the coming days (or I might not) and tell you what got my attention. But, in regards to “The Rebel,” it was this show from my childhood that came to mind as I rolled around in these verses.

Maybe, just maybe, I’m a rogue wanderer seeking that inner peace and have finally been given a map to find it…