Book excerpt: Gaunt and hollow-eyed, Jack had passed the limits of his endurance. There, lost in a fierce storm on a mountain far from home, for the second time since Utah had died, he prayed. His prayer was one of desperation- God, do what you will with me, but please get this horse off the mountain His voice held no power though, and the howling of the winds rose to a shriek, blowing his words back in his face, as though the very mountains themselves took voice in the elements to taunt and mock him. Once There Was a Cowboy gives us all pause to reconsider the brutal storms of our own lives and to take heart that perhaps the very God of the universe loves us enough to destroy the very things we cherish that we might come to Him- ravaged but cleansed, broken but uncompromised. Sifted.