I Could Have Turned Right

Jul 14, 2026

A few quick notes before today’s photos and reflection…

Tomorrow (7/15) is our next Pop Culture Pastors Hour conversation - we’ll be talking about epic tales and the “hero’s journey” as a bit of a lead in to talking about The Odyssey in a few weeks. We’ll be talking at 1pm ET and you can find us at pcph.substack.com
I’m deeply grateful for several more requests for photo blessings / bestowals that came in this week. For more about these, you can click here for this new offering I am sharing.

Sunday morning, I could have turned right.

I came to the t-intersection right next to my house and I chose to turn left.

Not the t-intersection at my house but just another from the next day to represent that intersection

Had I turned right, I would have made my way to one of Scout and my walking places on Sunday mornings and I would have talked through my sermon as I had originally planned it, would have returned home for my Sunday morning yoga time, and then made it to the church right around my normal time.

Had I turned right, my son would not have been woken up by a parent needing a Spanish translator and he would have been awake to go see a movie with us in the afternoon.

Had I turned right, I would not have driven right into the middle of a parable of Jesus.1

Instead I turned left, and less than ¼ mile later, I came across a family whose car’s left side was off the side of our under-construction road.

The car was fully off the road with its left side leaning over the dropoff on the side

This reflection isn’t going to tell any more of their story or about what happened immediately after. A public post like this isn’t the place for it but instead I have been thinking the last 36 hours or so about that simple question.

What if I had turned right?

As you are thinking about the directions our lives take us in ways expected and surprising, here are a few other photos from recent days: