A Conversation about High Plains Drifter

This is an exchange of comments between Belinda Thorne, formerly from Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, and Tim Shey, author of High Plains Drifter:  A Hitchhiking Journey Across America.  These comments were taken from Belinda's post "Remember Lot's Wife" on her blog Grace and Truth:

September/October 2020

Belinda:  Tim, why is your book called High Plains Drifter?

Tim:  Now THAT is a very good question. I think that in all of my years of hitchhiking around the United States and in all of the years that High Plains Drifter has been available via manuscript, book, Internet Archive or blog, no one has ever asked that question.

I named my book High Plains Drifter after Clint Eastwood’s film High Plains Drifter (1973). I don’t know how many times I have seen that film. I absolutely identify with the main character played by Eastwood (the Stranger) who rides into town and kills some bad guys and then burns the town to the ground.

The Stranger in the film at one time was the town marshal: he was whipped to death by some bad guys who were paid by the owners of the local mining operation. To me, it reminds me of the death of Jesus Christ. There is a scene in the film where the townspeople are having a meeting at the local church and you see this Bible verse on the bulletin board: Isaiah 53: 3-4. The town marshal was rejected by the townspeople and then killed; I have been rejected by family, friends and church people because of my testimony, so I have been alone most of my life (that’s why I identify with the Stranger in the film).

I have a film review on my High Plains Drifter blog that you might like to read: “Clint Eastwood’s film High Plains Drifter (1973)”.

[Here I posted some links pertaining to my book High Plains Drifter.]

I hope these links aren’t overkill to your question, but as far as I can remember, no one has ever asked why I titled my book High Plains Drifter, so I am pleasantly surprised and a little bit flattered.

Belinda:  No, not overkill at all, thank you for answering my question.

Two things have stood out to me. One where you said in your short story that you like wide open spaces. And two, hitchhiking you are on the fringes of society.

I’ll tell you why I asked you that question. Last night I was praying. Praying about what to do. It’s so hard here now. Can you imagine, you who like open spaces, that we are in home prison now for 23 hours a day. Allowed out for one hour of exercise or one of us is allowed to go get essentials. And our Premier has extended this lockdown for an indefinite period till we get to less than 5 cases. I am now convinced he is a madman, full of demons.

Of course I am not sticking to these ridiculous rules. I’m doing what God leads me to. My husband and I have been running an underground church in our home for months, because church is now banned. We have mainly men come, those who’ve just left rehab and prison and we sing and praise and read the Word. They park up the road and walk to our house in the dark and sneak in one by one. It’s the only thing that’s kept me going during this dark time.

So I’m praying last night and the Lord takes me to a cliff top and we look down together over a dusty plain where there is dirty, tattooed, fighting people. He has shown me this before. A few weeks ago He showed me it and said “this is the land I am giving you”.

But last night He just showed me it again and I thought how we were on a high plain looking out over.
Then your book title from nowhere came into my head “High Plains Drifter”.
And I felt to ask you why.

The fringes of society, the outcasts who God has called us to. It has always been them. We can never fit in a church. We fit with the homeless and mentally ill and drug addicts. No one else I know is doing anything at the moment. All the churches are quiet and obediently closed and it makes me sick and angry.

I love your Shiloh poem, wow. The line about Cain bludgeoning Abel to death….

Anyway I am going to buy your book, it’s on Amazon yes?

Thank you for reading this, I don’t know what’s happening to me at the moment, it’s all very strange but I know my Lord and I trust Him.

Bless you Tim

Tim:  I think it is VERY interesting that you asked about the title of my book on a post that has the title “Remember Lot’s Wife”. If you watch Clint Eastwood’s High Plains Drifter, at the end of the film, the Stranger burns the town of Lago to the ground (God’s Wrath). The Scripture “remember Lot’s wife” is alluding to the destruction of Sodom & Gomorrah by fire and brimstone (God’s Wrath). So maybe eventually the Lord will lead you out of Melbourne into the wide open spaces (the Outback?) before God’s Wrath hits Melbourne?  You are led by the Holy Ghost; the Lord will reveal to you what you need to do.

About my book on Amazon. I think there is one copy left, but Amazon is charging an exorbitant price for it (probably because it is the last copy). You can read High Plains Drifter for free on my blog.

Yes, I am definitely on the fringes of society. The Lord led me out of the church back in 1991. The Lord has had me alone for most of my life. The Lord’s thoughts are higher than my thoughts. I know that the Lord has you and your family in the palm of His hand (I am thinking of Psalm 91).

Belinda:  You make a very good connection there . . .I had not connected that! I am going to watch that Clint Eastwood movie.

Yes I believe the Lord is leading us out of Melbourne. I am praying for His specific guidance as to where, but we are quite sure we are going.

Thank you for your link to your book. I look forward to reading it.

I have a scripture for you Tim:

Micah 4:6-8 ["In that day, saith the LORD, will I assemble her that halteth, and I will gather her that is driven out, and her that I have afflicted;  And I will make her that halted a remnant, and her that was cast far off a strong nation: and the LORD shall reign over them in mount Zion from henceforth, even for ever.  And thou, O tower of the flock, the strong hold of the daughter of Zion, unto thee shall it come, even the first dominion; the kingdom shall come to the daughter of Jerusalem."]

Jesus was an outcast. If we follow Him we also will be. You have to be an outcast to intercede for the outcasts.
You have blessed me greatly and I pray God will bless you greatly in return.

[A few weeks later . . .]

Belinda:  Hi Tim. I am reading your book. I’ve just finished chapter 7. I love this chapter.

I felt to share with you this:

“The wind blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit.” John 3:8

Tim:  I am glad that you liked that chapter. I remember that time back in 1998 when I was in San Luis Obispo, California. I stayed in a motel one night and then I slept outside on the side of this hill the next night. I was in this Burger King having a meal and for some reason I began to think of northern New Mexico (I worked on an apple farm in New Mexico back in 1986). Then all of a sudden the Holy Ghost fell on me very heavy, so I knew that the Lord wanted me to go to New Mexico.

So I was hitchhiking in New Mexico and that guy named Israel gave me a ride. Then the next day, that pastor preached about Jacob wrestling with the angel and then the angel named him Israel. It was quite a trip. When you are led by the Holy Ghost, your life is never boring, let me tell you.

When you are led by the Holy Ghost, your life looks a bit crazy. I thought at times that all of that hitchhiking was crazy. But usually some God-thing or something profound would happen virtually every day, so I knew that the Lord was in the hitchhiking. I knew that the Lord protected me and provided for me in my travels.

So why did the Lord have me hitchhike all those years? I talked to a lot of people about my Christian faith. Intercession was a big part. I was taking up my cross and following the Lord which helped to break curses off of my life and I was delivered of many demons (I am still being delivered of demons). The devil hates a life that is dead to self. Also, hitchhiking was simply obedience to the Lord: when we enter the Kingdom of Heaven, our life is obedience unto the Lord: “Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven”.

Thank you for the Scripture above (John 3:8).

Belinda:  Amen the devil does hate a life that is dead to self. But the Lord loves it, because He can use that one. And that one has power to prevail with Him.

[Twelve days later . . .]

Belinda:  Hi Tim, I have just finished reading chapter 9 of your book. It struck me that God was training you to be led by the Spirit. That your life was /is a literal representation (like Ezekiel's was) of how God wants to lead us and how we are to respond. We think to go east but we don’t get a ride so we go west and immediately God sends a ride. The children of Israel had to get their feet wet before the Jordan River parted.

You will hear a voice behind you say this is the way, walk ye in it.
To be so trained by the Spirit, to be sensitive to Him, this is it. This is everything. Just some thoughts that have struck me reading your book.
Blessings.

Tim:  Amen. I was definitely led by the Holy Ghost as I hitchhiked the United States.

Hitchhiking, also, was fasting and prayer. A lot of people think of fasting as fasting from food. Fasting can also mean fasting from a former lifestyle: I used to work at a lumber yard back in Iowa before I started to hitchhike. I would get odd jobs here and there on the road, but most of the time, I really had to put my trust in the Lord for Him to provide for me, protect me and find a place for me to sleep. Working at the lumber yard or working for that construction company was a vacation compared to hitchhiking.

Remember when Jesus said that these (demons) can only come out through fasting and prayer?(Mark 9:29)  So many curses were broken off of me while I was hitchhiking around the country; I was delivered of so many demons while hitchhiking. Why? Hitchhiking was fasting and prayer and hitchhiking was taking up my cross and following the Lord. The cross is death to self-will. Demons hate a selfless body; demons love a selfish, sinful body.

In hitchhiking, I met many people on the road and talked to many people about my faith in Jesus Christ. My hitchhiking also reminded me of when the Lord told Isaiah to walk naked and barefoot in Egypt as a witness against them (Isaiah 20:3). Even if I was not able to talk to people on the road, my hitchhiking was a powerful witness of my obedience to the Lord. Obedience is an end in itself. Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done.

Thank you for reading my book. I greatly appreciate your response.

Romans 8:14: “For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.”

Sent Ones

What God is trying to tell us

Book Review:  High Plains Drifter

The Representation of Justice in High Plains Drifter

Book Review: The First Time I Rode a Freight Train & other hitchhiking stories

This is an email I received today from someone who gave me a ride a couple of times in Montana:

Hi Tim,

I picked up a copy of The First Time I Rode a Freight Train & Other Hitchhiking Stories at the Bitterroot Library [Hamilton, Montana] and just finished reading it. I feel like I know you quite well now, just from this account of what a few years on the road looked like for you.

One of my favorite chapters was "A Christmas Story or Junked Cars Can Be Beautiful". I actually read that just a few days before Christmas and it gave me a feeling that the Christmas story lives on in forms less obvious. In general, I really liked the meaning that you gave to roads, cars, and the people that drive them. As a car enthusiast myself, I have always loved wrenching and driving. I think I mentioned to you one of the times I picked you up that a few friends and I race an old BMW that we work on together. Likewise, searching for secluded, twisting backroads to really let our cars stretch their legs on and hug some corners has always been a special pastime with that same group of friends. Roads, cars, and the people that drive them have been important in my life, too; it was striking to see the completely different meaning that these things have in your life.

Also, in reading your book, I’ve given a lot of thought as to where God is trying to lead me. I believe that one can be led by the Spirit, even if not physically moving in a nomadic sense. I’ve had a lot of questions in my mind regarding the next step in my life - medical school. I applied to both M.D. and D.O. programs, but am struggling with a myriad of issues concerning which degree I should pursue. It wasn’t until I was nearly done with your book that I started to ask where God wants me to be. I am seeking His counsel.

--Alek Wood

Book Review:  High Plains Drifter
Stobe the Hobo

The First Time I Rode a Freight Train & other hitchhiking stories

Writings from the Road

Writings from the Road by Tim Shey. 132 pages. Non-fiction. Published in 2016. 

A Red-Letter Day
Writings from the Road

Book Review: High Plains Drifter

High Plains Drifter:  A Hitchhiking Journey Across America 

by Tim Shey 

This review is by M. Canniff (Valora Raziel):

A Hitchhiker Following God

“I first heard of Tim Shey through his web site, and then ordered his book. (I have yet to ever meet him.) I was curious about what life on the road must be like for a hitchhiker following God. His path that he details in this book, blew all my previous misconceptions about hitchhikers clear out of the water! He receives guidance from the Holy Spirit, through the spiritual gift of knowledge, in what I see as a unique twist to the usual. Some have claimed to hear the voice of God speaking to them and directing them into His Ways, but in Tim’s experience, He feels the anointing of the Lord upon him, giving him great peace and joy, thereby letting him know, that he is indeed upon the right path. And what a path it is! Tim shares how the Holy Spirit leads him into intersecting paths of those people that God wants him to meet. Sometimes it’s just a simple conversation with another believer, that leads them into a stronger faith in Christ, and other times it is to actually, physically, lend a helping hand to those who (at that moment,) are in desperate need. It shows how the Lord can be trusted to work out even the smallest details in ones life. It also shows how one can live for Christ without all the encumbrances that come with having and getting material stuff. My only disappointment with the book was it’s lack of a good solid ending. (I am a ‘happily-ever-after’ and an ‘all-loose-ends-tied-up’ kind of reader.) However, I also realize that it simply isn’t possible for him to have one yet, as he is still out there, on the road, doing the Will of God. So, in conclusion, if you’ve ever wondered what it must be like, for a man of God to live the life of a hitchhiker, then this is the book for you. It will open your eyes to a world that few of us have ever experienced…”


Clint Eastwood's film High Plains Drifter (1973)
Two Pleasant Surprises:  High Plains Drifter Revisited
High Plains Drifter:  A Hitchhiking Journey Across America

The First Time I Rode a Freight Train & other hitchhiking stories
Hitchhiking Stories from Digihitch

A Letter from Israel
Writings from the Road
Book Review:  The First Time I Rode a Freight Train & other hitchhiking stories

Remember Lot's Wife

High Plains Drifter (short story)

A Conversation about High Plains Drifter

The First Time I Rode a Freight Train & other hitchhiking stories (excerpts)

The First Time I Rode a Freight Train & other hitchhiking stories

By Tim Shey 

Published January 2012
PublishAmerica
Baltimore 

Here are some excerpts from The First Time I Rode a Freight Train & other hitchhiking stories:

Page 8:  "The cop dropped me off in the middle of somewhere. It was ten o'clock at night, it was hot and humid and I forgot to fill up my water bottle back in Central City. I was not a happy camper. I thanked the officer for the ride and he turned around and drove west into the Nebraska night.

When the cop dropped me off, the last thing he said to me was, "Remember:  pray without ceasing."

"The next town was six miles away. So I walked past the corn fields and the hay fields of eastern Nebraska. I was thirsty. The noise of diesel engines roaring away pumping water into irrigation circles could be heard as I walked back east.

"Eventually, I made it to the small town of Duncan. I found a water hydrant and drank a ton of water. I then found a pickup parked next to the railroad tracks. I climbed into the cab of the pickup and slept there that night.

"The next morning, I walked to the shoulder of U.S. 30 and began thumbing for a ride to Columbus. Within half an hour, some guy walked up to the pickup that I had slept in the night before and drove off in it. Sometimes it is a good idea to get up early in the morning.

"I got a ride to Columbus. This guy took me to the bus station. I met a lady there that helped me pay for a bus ticket to Des Moines. I got on the bus and it went through Omaha. I got off in Adel, Iowa that evening. Adel is just west of Des Moines on U.S. 6.

"I phoned a friend in Ames. He picked me up in Adel and drove me back to Ames. He thought that it was funny that I hitchhiked to Nebraska and hopped a freight train. He thought it was really funny that a cop told me to get off the train. I didn't think it was so funny."

_____ 

Page 22:  "My backpack has shown a lot of wear and tear over the years. There are rips in it; it is somewhat dirty. There are places where I sewed it up with monofilament fishing line and there is a piece of duct tape on the bottom of the pack. Without duct tape, we would be a people no more.

"I believe the weight of my backpack averages around thirty-five pounds, so I get some good exercise every day when I have to walk several miles on the highway. The guy who gave me the backpack told me that he spent $200.00 for it back in 1979. It is still hanging in there pretty tough. It is an interior frame backpack. I don't know the brand name.

"It has been through rain, snow, dirt, mud, sand (e.g. I slept on the beach at Cambria, California), crude oil (in the back of a pickup in New Mexico), hundred-degree heat, and twenty-below-zero cold. I use it as a pillow when I sleep outside. I use it as body armor when somebody drives by and sprays me with submachine gun bullets (just joking). My body armor is a wall of fire that surrounds me--the Holy Ghost Fire.

"My backpack and I have hitchhiked countless thousands upon thousands of miles throughout the United States. Somebody once offered to buy me a new backpack two or three years ago. I graciously declined their offer. I'm going to keep this backpack as long as I can. You see, it never argues with me, it never disagrees with me, never talks back. It is very low maintenance. When I get tired of carrying it, I stop, take off my backpack and sit on it on the side of the road and rest for a while.

"When I die, it doesn't look like I will be able to take it to heaven with me--I guess this is something that I will just have to accept."

_____

Page 35:  "This past week I was hitchhiking in Montana and I ended up in Ennis. I went to the library and typed up some stuff on my Digihitch blog and then I walked to the Exxon gas station.

"I was inside the convenience store buying something to eat, when this older man walked up to me and asked, 'Are you the traveler? Is that your backpack out front?'

"I said, 'Yeah.'

"His name was Arthur and he said that he had done some hitchhiking in his younger days. He was originally from San Diego and did a lot of surfing at one time. Arthur used to hitchhike with a guitar. He asked me if I needed a place to stay for a while. He told me he needed some work done on his ranch and that he had a bad back; he had been in a real serious car crash years ago.

"So I told him that that would be great and that I would like to work for him. I grabbed my backpack and we drove around six miles to his ranch. He had a housemate named Hal who had lived there for five years; Hal was married and divorced and pretty much retired. Arthur used to be a miner years ago.

"I fed the horses hay and grain while I was there. Arthur and I hauled some garbage to the local dump and we did a lot of cleaning up of some trash in the house and rearranging some boxes for storage.

"I ended up staying two nights and then hit the road. I hitchhiked south and made it to Driggs, Idaho where I met up with a friend. I stayed at he and his wife's place in Drummond last night.

"Yesterday, I checked my email and Arthur sent me a very kind and thoughtful note; here it is below:

"'Hello Saw man we are glad in the lord and holy power for leading you to us. We are very much lovers of good men who follow the path in life that few dare to seek, I find in you the good warm energy that god has bestowed upon you, follow your path no one else can, and remember us in your prayers we shall forever be in your kindness and have no regrets for the time you and we shared with you. Be always welcome in our tee pee. We enjoyed you and the god & man energy to shared with us. Have a safe and full filled life and some day return to us that we may share what god has given us to share with his chosen few. you are special in our hearts and minds so be good to yourself and we will not judge you but find in you faith to carry on and struggle with our human condition and remain thankfull to god first and the life of mammon second.

"'your friends Arthur And Harold.
ps glad you liked my cooking. pax goldbear'" 

_____ 

The First Time I Rode a Freight Train & other hitchhiking stories
By Tim Shey
Paperback:  178 Pages
ISBN-10: 1462661718

ISBN-13: 978-1462661718

Language: English 

Hobo Shoestring--King of the Rails
Hitchhiking Stories from Digihitch
The Road
Stobe the Hobo

The First Time I Rode a Freight Train (short story)

Book Review:  The First Time I Rode a Freight Train & other hitchhiking stories

Egypt is Burning

Yesterday I hitchhiked from Jackson, Wyoming to Bozeman to Columbus, Montana. I got some fast rides; the Presence of God was very strong all day. Last night I slept on a stack of lumber at the Timberweld place in Columbus. While I was laying in my sleeping bag, I began to compose "Egypt is Burning" in my mind. This morning I finished composing the poem at the McDonald's here in Columbus.

_____


Egypt is Burning
By Tim Shey

Sons of Ishmael,
The Scriptures have come full circle.
The angel of the Lord said
He would be a wild man.
Abraham's firstborn was Isaac.
Mount Moriah pointed towards Calvary.

Malachi said:
Was not Esau Jacob's brother?
The Lord said:
Jacob I loved, Esau I hated.
Cain murdered Abel;
Joseph was hated by his brothers.
Jesus was killed
In the house of his friends.
Hagar's offspring mocks
The Messiah to this day.

Egypt is burning.
Isaiah walks naked among you.
Your sin and rebellion is
Broadcast twenty-four seven
On FOX and CNN.

Israel is no longer Jacob:
He has power
With God and men.
Who can resist God's will?

The Lord is transforming
The bloody Middle East.
Shiloh is here in power:
He couches as an old lion.
The Tribe of Judah
Rules in Zion.
The City of David
Is a state of rest:
The Book of Hebrews, Chapter Four.
Those who abide in Him
Are already in New Jeru-Salem.
All you have to do
Is meditate on Genesis 49: 10.

Who is this
That cometh from Edom?
His Cross is splattered in red.
Egypt is burning.
I will tread them
In mine anger.
Egypt is burning.
The handmaid despised Sarai.
Egypt is burning.
Do not reject
His Precious Blood.
Egypt is burning.

-

Genesis 49: 10
Islam is Slavery
Bereshith 
A Dream About Egypt

The Hidden Streets of Babylon

The Hidden Streets of Babylon
By Tim Shey

Adulterated
With selfwork
Intoxicated
By traditions of men
Stumble down the hidden streets of Babylon
You are a puppet on a hellish string

Many words are spoken
Sterile speech into vacant air
This is how the heathen pray
The Lord wants your heart
No faith, no life, no Jesus
I am surrounded by white-washed walls

Summa Theologica is for aesthetes
Solus ecclesia echoes nothing
Most Latin is Greek to me

Rituals and liturgy
Feed the pride
Of the unsaved seminarian

The Council of Whitby
Ushered in the Dark Ages
We have strayed
From the Word of God
And His inspired Scriptures

Idolatry is a habit
Worn by blind people
Watch them
Groping, crawling
In a dark, overchurched ditch

Living by sight
And the wisdom of this world
Is fashionable and insane
Its compass points the maddening crowd
To nowhere
It paves a smooth, broad path
To perdition

Celebrity Prostitutes - Bribed Politicians - Controlled-Media Whores

Goodbye, Las Vegas

Las Vegas

Goodbye, Las Vegas
By Tim Shey

“Unreal City,
Under the brown fog of a winter dawn,
A crowd flowed over London Bridge, so many,
I had not thought death had undone so many.”

“He who was living is now dead
We who were living are now dying”

“Falling towers
Jerusalem Athens Alexandria
Vienna London
Unreal”

--T.S. Eliot
“The Waste Land”
_____

Desert jackals
Run to their destruction
Hollow eyes see nothing
Behind shades of glass
Painted Jezebel faces
Unrecognized by man
Mourning becomes electric
As piercing city lights
Rape the virgin night

This place never sleeps
And never awakes from death
Black Jack table bait
Roll-the-dice breath
Throw your money down
This is casino heaven
Idolatry never felt so good

This harlot language doesn’t speak
Straw fires always burn fast
I see the Prophet Jeremiah weeping
Over a people brought down to bankruptcy
By a Queen, a King and three Aces

A hitchhiker wanders hardened streets
With his burden on his back
This is the heart of darkness
Lifeless buildings built with foolish gold

I see Sodom burning
And bodies turned to ash
They were very fluent
In arrogance, pride, adultery
And enviro-paganspeak

You have sold your soul to Satan
Do you remember Noah’s Flood?
The City of David was sacked by Romans
And America by Marxist-Darwin thugs

The Stranger leaves the graveyard
And the stench of Vegas Past
And hitches a ride to Barstow
Across the relentless Mohave
On Interstate Fifteen
_____

Apocalypse Now
Las Vegas Earthquake
This is Sodom! This is Sodom!
I am a Stranger in the Earth
God Will Draw The Wicked into cities Marked for Destruction
A Vision about George Washington and America
The Nakedness of Noah

A Prophet's Eyes

A Prophet's Eyes
By Tim Shey

I piped to you
But you did not dance;
I mourned to you,
But you did not weep.

I abide
In the furnace of God.
My breath
Is the fire of Heaven.

A writer once said,
You look
Like Leo Tolstoy.
It’s your eyes,
He said.
Your eyes . . .
. . . like Leo Tolstoy.

A circle of fire
Surrounds me
Protecting me
From Satan’s arm,
Warning me
Of Satan’s charm,
Keeping me
From Satan’s harm.

An intense burning
Within me
Is stoked by
The Word of God.
A deeply felt yearning
Within me
To warn them
Of the wrath of God.

Isaiah, Jeremiah and Elijah,
I know you well,
Because I am baptized
With the same
Holy Ghost Fire
That empowered you
And kept you from Hell.

Jesus died
So that
I can see
Events
Before they are born.
I was birthed—
Not of flesh
Nor of the will of man—
I was birthed
In violence
By the Precious Blood of God.

His body was pierced
So that my eyes
Could pierce
The dark night of Adam
And help unblind the blind.
The white-hot heat of Heaven
Is the color
Of my sight
That leads us upward and onward,
Spirit-filled warriors of mankind.

Ethos
February/March 1997
Iowa State University

Amos 3: 7: “Surely the Lord God will do nothing but, he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets.”

Shiloh
The Prophet

The Spirit of a Prophet
Locusts and Wild Honey
Vintage Footage of Leo Tolstoy

[Hebrew:  navi (prophet); einayim (eyes)]

Shiloh

Shiloh
By Tim Shey

Brutal deathdance;
My eyes weep blood.
Pharisees smile like vipers,
They laugh and mock their venom:
Blind snakes leading
The deaf and dumb multitude.

Where are my friends?
The landscape is dry and desolate.
They have stretched my shredded body
On this humiliating tree.

The hands that healed
And the feet that brought good news
They have pierced
With their fierce hatred.

The man-made whip
That opened up my back
Preaches from a proper pulpit.
They sit in comfort:
That vacant-eyed congregation.
The respected, demon-possessed reverend
Forks his tongue
Scratching itchy ears
While Cain bludgeons
Abel into silence.

My flesh in tattered pieces
Clots red and cold and sticks
To the rough-hewn timber
That props up my limp, vertical carcase
Between heaven and earth.
My life drips and puddles
Below my feet,
As I gaze down dizzily
On merciless eyes and dagger teeth.

The chapter-and-versed wolves
Jeer and taunt me.
Their sheepwool clothing
Is stained black with the furious violence
Of their heart of stone.
They worship me in lip service,
But I confess,
I never knew them
(Though they are my creation).

My tongue tastes like ashes:
It sticks to the roof of my mouth.
I am so thirsty.
This famine is too much for me.
The bulls of Bashan have bled me white.
Papa, into your hands
I commend my Spirit.

Ethos
February/March 1997
Iowa State University

Genesis 49: 10: “The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet until Shiloh come; and unto him shall the gathering of the people be.”

Psalm 22
A Prophet's Eyes
The Passion of the Christ
New Jerusalem and New Shiloh
To the True and Everlasting Shiloh

Passion of the Christ actor Jim Caviezel sends Hollywood regime into panic

Hitchhiking in Nebraska

High Plains Drifter typescript

High Plains Drifter: A Hitchhiking Journey Across America

By Tim Shey

Excerpt from Chapter Five:

Psalm 18: 19: “He brought me forth also into a large place; he delivered me, because he delighted in me.”

In May of 1997, I hitchhiked west towards Nebraska. I have always loved going through Nebraska. In all my travels, I believe that the people of Nebraska and Texas were by far the best people I have ever met. Nebraska was in my comfort zone. Whenever I had been wandering out west and came out of Wyoming and into Nebraska, I felt that I was back on my home turf. The people of Nebraska are gold, silver and precious stones.

I got some good rides all the way to Osmond, Nebraska. It was getting close to sundown when this guy driving a tractor picked me up.

"You can sit on the fender if you want," he said.

"Sounds good to me," I said.

He drove me to Plainview and we talked about the things of God and the Bible. He asked me what I was doing. I told him that I just quit my job and thought I would hitchhike by faith and see where God would take me. He offered me a job right there. He had his own construction company and lived on a farm with his wife and kids. I told him I would love to work for him, but that God was calling me out west for some reason. We stopped in Plainview and we shook hands. I hopped off the tractor and I got a motel room.

The next morning this tractor-trailer picked me up.

"I'm going all the way to western South Dakota," he said. "I got five drops: three in Nebraska and two in South Dakota."

We stopped at three places in Nebraska and I helped unload his van--he was hauling some small trees and shrubs. We got to a truck stop near Kadoka, South Dakota and he told me he would buy me some supper.

We were eating supper when he looked at me and said, "You know, right before I picked you up I saw this man pointing at you. It was like he was telling me to pick you up."

"What?" I exclaimed. "I didn't see anybody out there. I was alone.”

"I saw him plain as day. When I picked you up I didn't see him anymore."

I was flabbergasted. So I sat there and wondered and looked out the window and asked him, "Do you think he was an angel?"

"He must've. It was the strangest thing I ever saw."

On our trip we talked a lot about the Word of God and certain preachers on TV. He lived in Sioux City and was very well self-educated. I enjoyed talking with him. After supper he said he was going back to the sleeper and get some sleep. I took a long walk—for two or three miles—out in the country. Lots of grassland; it was beautiful.

I walked back to the truck and the trucker was sound asleep. He had a double-decker sleeper, so I got in the top bunk and turned on the VCR. From midnight till four in the morning I watched two films. The first film was The Professional—it was about the life of a mafia hit man and a twelve-year-old girl named Matilda. It was very good. I forget the other film.

The next day we stopped in Rapid City and Spearfish and we unloaded his truck. He bought me breakfast and I hit the road.

High Plains Drifter: A Hitchhiking Journey Across America

Two Pleasant Surprises

Book Review:  High Plains Drifter
An American Pilgrim: Some Reflections on High Plains Drifter
Hitchhiking Stories from Digihitch