From the Home Place

January 17, 2026

Good morning. Today’s weather looks a bit breezy. It’s 21 degrees at 4 a.m., headed toward 51, with wind gust of at least that same speed. The weather man is saying that we could get a batch of snow on Thursday. I don’t much care for snow, but moisture will be a gift from our Lord!

Yesterday was a rather busy day around this outfit. I let at 9:30 in the morning to drive 100+ miles to a funeral in Nebraska. I never knew the deceased but was blessed to officiate the funeral for a family that doesn’t have a pastor. Really though, I made the trip because a very special nephew of mine asked me to lend a helping hand to this dear family. I got home about an hour after dark, but by Goo’s amazing grace we paid proper tribute to a man, and I was blessed to get to share the message of salvation in Jesus Christ with a group of folks that I didn’t know.

It always amazes me how God keeps a feller busy doing His work. For me, it is a great blessing to get to tell others about the love of Jesus! I’m hoping the Boss will keep this ‘ol coyote around for a few more years to do just that.

A week ago, I had plans for yesterday that didn’t include a funeral, but isn’t that how our Lord works, about the time we get things all planed out, He throws us a curve. Speaking of curves, I saw a batch of them yesterday as I drove a right smart distance. Many years ago, I wondered why there are so many curves in a road. I mean, we all know that the shortest distance between two points is a straight line, so why does a feller have to meander around the countryside for a hundred miles to get from here to there?

I once posed that question to an engineer who designed roads. He informed me that sometimes the topography requires a curve around an obstacle. Other times the curves designed into a road are there to prevent weather related issues. But do you know the primary reason curves are put into the design of a new road? The curves are built into the road to keep you awake and involved as you drive on such a road.

So, let’s build us a biblical application here. The curves in your life are there to keep you awake and involved as you travel down the road of life. You see, the curves are those events that God brings into your life that adjust your plans. Those special little moments that require you to go another direction. Often, we would call such events an “interruption,” but I believe such moments to be a gift from God.

The curves in the road of life are God’s special blessings to keep us awake and involved in the process. Just think about it, if God didn’t give us so many curves, we would become robots. We would go about our daily lives traveling from point A to point B in the easiest fashion, a straight line. Our lives would become so boring without any curves.

Take yesterday for example: It was a big curve in my life. I had other plans, other things I needed to do, other things I wanted to do. If God had allowed me to build my road for yesterday, it would have been straight and simple. But no, He gave me a curve. A curve that required I drive most of the day to be around a hundred plus people that I would have most likely never met in any other way. A group of people that I got to tell about Jesus!

If He would have left me to my plans, I would have spent the day helping a Christian work on his barn. But Tom already knows Jesus and is walking with Him. The folks God sent me to yesterday, didn’t appear to know Jesus for the most part. Today they can no longer say that to be true in their lives. God sent them His message through one of His old servants. And you know what, the curve kept me awake and involved in the trip that I will call my life!

I wasn’t the only one that found a curve in their path of life. The folks at the funeral had also been given curve. Miss Deb had a big curve show up in her day when a special lady fell down some stairs and Deb was called to the hospital. I’m guessing, you quite likely encountered a curve or two as well yesterday. And every one of those curves were placed there by the Master Engineer for the purpose of keeping you awake and involved as you traveled another day down the road called life!

After all, God-sent curves are not an interruption, they are an opportunity to possibly be a blessing in someone else’s life. So, the next time God puts a curve in your life, don’t complain; just enjoy the drive!

Praising God for curves with you, Neal