From the Home Place

February 24, 2026

Good morning friend! It’s a chinook! Webster defines chinook as, “a warm wind that descends the eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains.” When I put ‘ol Coffee out the door at 4 a.m., most of the snow is gone and it is 45 degrees! True, the wind is matching that temp, and both are to rise as the day goes on: a high of 55 with 52 mph wind gusts. And of course, I’m headed to a horse sale with a friend, pulling a trailer. As is often said about Wyoming weather, if you don’t like this weather, hang on, it will soon change. As of this morning, the weather man is talking about 1-3 inches of snow tomorrow with 55 mph wind gusts. By golly, that will grab everyone’s attention!

A while back I mentioned that when I was a short-legged feller I was often sent to a neighbor’s place to help with cattle chores. When I first started traveling to other ranches, I was allowed to ride one of our gentler horses, not because the ‘ol horse needed more miles, but because there would be wire gates between the two ranches; usually there would be several wire gates to maneuver.

You see, when your 7-8 years of age, most five-wire gates are a real problem. You folks with a ranch background understand that a gate was usually the place a batch of ‘ol cows would work hard on hoping to get to a different pasture. As such, most gates were impossible for a little feller to open because they had to be kept stretched tight.

But I had to go through 3-6 of them to get to my destination, so I had to figure out how to get a gate opened and closed. I remember that my first journey was to a ranch off to the north of us about 7 miles, and I had about twice that many gates to go through.

Early in the morning, dad helped me tack my horse, gave me directions of how to angle back and forth to find the gates and sent me off with the words, “be careful, behave, and be back here before dark, and just like that I was riding off into no man’s land. Oh, and by the way, I didn’t have a cell phone in my hip pocket in case I had trouble either.

As I rode off, I heard dad start the pickup. I rode a half mile north of our house and there sat dad in the pickup. My first thought was that he was going to drive to the same place I was to ride. That would be great, I wouldn’t be alone in the middle of nowhere, and he could open the gates.

I rode up to the first gate; dad met me there. I waited for him to open the gate and let me through but instead he said, “Shake out a small loop.” I was highly confused, I didn’t see anything that needed roped, but I also knew better than to argue with dad. He then instructed me, “Now, wrap your rope around the saddle horn a half wrap, then get off your horse and put your loop over the gate stick(it was located on the end of the gate that would open), hold on tight to the tail end of your rope and ask your horse to take a step back.

Just like that, we had opened the first gate. After I led my horse through the gate, I just had to reverse the process. Wow, I had just opened my first gate all by myself! As I climbed up the leg of my horse and got back in the driver’s seat, dad mentioned that I only had a dozen more to open and close, so I had better get to moving. I used that method for several more years before I got big enough, and stout enough, to open a gate on my own.

You see friends, my dad didn’t remove the obstacle, he just taught me how to deal with it. Our Heavenly Father does the same with us. The Bible is full of information that helps us deal with the daily obstacles of life, and our Heavenly Father semes to give us ample opportunities to learn how to use His information. We usually call such opportunities, “problems.” Yet as with most problems, they are just opportunities to learn.

Each time a problem arises, we learn how to use what we have, and how to trust God to help us deal with what we don’t have. Take the disciples for example. You remember the story well; In Matthew 14, Jesus and a multitude of people have just finished a revival meeting on a hillside. The Bible tells us that there were “about five thousand men…, besides women and children” present and it was “getting late.” The problem was that as far as the disciples could tell the caterer hadn’t arrived in time for the evening meal.

Because supper was going to be a problem for so many people, the disciple’s human reasoning suggested that Jesus “send the crowds away” to find their own food. Instead, Jesus asked those first disciples the same question He asks us when we have a problem. Jesus responded with, “They do not need to go away; you give them something to eat!”

Those first disciples, just like us of today, used human reasoning to solve the problem instead of trusting Jesus to give them direction. And much like He does in our lives today, Jesus told the disciples to use what they had.

My response, “Well Lord, I don’t reckon the granola bar that is turning mushy in my pocket is going to feed very many folks.” And at that moment, Jesus smiles. You know the rest of the biblical account, Jesus takes a little boy’s lunch and multiplies it to feed everyone present. There are even leftovers!

However, we dare not get so mesmerized by the event that we forget the process; you know, like learning how to open a gate. Jesus looked at five loaves and two fish and then He prayed (v.19). You see my friends, when a problem arises, our first step ought to be to pray, and then work.

I hope that everyone of us has watched Jesus turn an impossibility into an opportunity! That which is impossible for man, is possible for God; we just need to begin with prayer. So, today as Thomas and I head west with one horse in a trailer, the first thing we will do is pray. Before we turn a wheel, we will pray.

How about your day? I’m trusting that before today is over, our Lord will give each of us an opportunity to see Him at work in and through our life. Or you can depend upon your ability and try to deal with the problem all by yourself, to which I respond, “Good luck!”

As for these two cowboys, we are going to pray first and then strangle a steering wheel for the next four hours.

Praying first with you, Neal