From the Home Place

February 12, 2026

The weather is at 22 degrees at 4 a.m., headed for 52 for a high. Winds gusting to 30 mph will push me to Nebraska where I am to meet with a family to plan a memorial service for their loved one there on Monday. Another day of looking at the stripes on a road while visiting with the Lord.

Allow me to invite you travel back with me some 65+ years. If memory serves me correctly, I was in second grade. At that point I walked a mile to school the days that I was there. It was lambing season, and there were probably as mays days that I was absent from school as there were days that I was present.

This particular day I had gone to school and didn’t even get in the door before dad instructed, “Hurry up and get you clothes changed, we have a ewe in trouble.” I didn’t grumble that I needed a snack, or that I wanted to relax for a while first, nor did I mention that I had experienced a difficult day at school, and I didn’t feel like helping. I charged into the house, dropped my books and lunchbox and got my chore clothes on.

Dad met me at the kitchen door, and we were outside in a flash. As we made our way to the lambing shed, dad explained the problem and that I would have to help her. You see, there was something in my dad’s body that if he were to reach inside a ewe to help get a stuck lamb out, within a few hours the ‘ol girl would be dead from blood poisoning. I’ve seen him scrub with Lysol disinfectant, nearly burning his hide off, only to have a dead ewe shortly after he helped her. So, from an early age, I was the lamb puller.

I got down to the ewe’s level and pushed the protruding leg back into the birth canal. Once there, I could feel eight legs and two heads, twins. That meant that there wouldn’t be much room to get the backwards lamb turned around and headed out the open door!

After an eternity of grunting, pushing, cussing (I was good at that at an early age), and never admitting defeat, we had a set of healthy twins looking for their first meal. Dad grabbed a gunny sack and helped me wipe most of the “stuff” off my arm and chest, before we started doing chores. My older brother would be home from town school directly, but for now it was just the two of us working together to keep the outfit running.

Dad and I would keep that partnership going until the day Miss Deb and I got married. Even after that, we were out home every weekend, helping dad get the things done that he couldn’t do by himself. All I ever wanted to do was to run the home ranch.

Within the next ten years, dad would pass, and God would give me marching orders to enter into full-time ministry. Now if you would have asked that second grade boy if he was going to be a preacher, he would have let you have it with some of those choice words he had learned to use. There was no way I was ever going to be an “idiot preacher!” But God said….”

And for the rest of my born days, I have been extremely blessed to get to serve my Lord. Oh, for sure, when we started this process, I knew way more about dealing with sheep, cattle and horses than I knew about dealing with people. You see, I’m an extreme introvert – that means I don’t like being around people. For the first 30 years of my life, I would do anything short of a fight to not have to be around a crowd of people, except for dance night. Now I greatly enjoy being right in the middle of the crowd each Sunday morning.

You see my friends, God seldom asks us what we want to do for His kingdom. When He calls us to salvation in Christ Jesus, God sends His Holy Spirit to live in and through us. As such, God gets to decide what He is going to do with His servants. The moment a person realizes that God doesn’t call folks to salvation so they can have fun and live happily-ever-after, is the moment that their life changes forever. God calls us to become His servants, regardless of who we are or what we like, or don’t like.

Much like getting those lambs turned around so they could be born, God is really good at reaching into a person’s life and helping them get turned around as well. And when God’s Spirit gets ahold of your life, things change!

So, what is it that you get do in service of the King? Or are you still telling Him, “I can’t.” If so, try telling the King of the universe, “I’m here to serve You.” Then watch what He will do with you. I guarantee you it will be the best part of your life when the Spirit of God begins His transformation process and uses you to do that which you cannot do on your own. You see my friends, God’s specialty is helping each of us do that which we cannot naturally do. That way He gets the glory and we get the blessing.

Come on, repeat the words of Isaiah and say, “Here am I Lord, send me.” You and everyone around you will be amazed what God can do with a willing vessel!

Changing “I can’t,” to “We can,” with you, Neal