Monthly Archives: August 2025

Pastoral Ponderings– Woofstock

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Pastoral Ponderings—Woofstock—27 AUG 25

“What the heck is Woofstock?” I wondered when I saw the t-shirt while at the vet to get our barn cat fixed.  Looked like fun, whatever it is!  So I looked it up when I got home—It’s a big pet festival and blessing that’s a fund-raiser for some pet charity, with parades, costumes, “dog diving” and more.  I don’t know if it’s a traveling show or not—but one happened in Warren a couple weeks ago, but fear not—it’s coming to Cleveland on Sep. 7!

What is it about our pets that brings out such love and joy?  When I was a kid, we were “pet owners,” but now we’re “pet parents,” or grandparents!  Even to the point of some people (my mom and wife included!) who think it’s almost cruel to keep animals outside—I had to arrange for a secret hand-off in order to get past Karol’s reluctance, in order to order to get a barn cat to keep the Evil Beasties at bay from our barn!

For dogs, it seems to be their embodiment of acceptance, grace, forgiveness, and unconditional love.  Cats aren’t quite there yet—but a cat’s purr can cover a lot of sin, especially when they join you with your purr when you need it most (I so wish I could purr!).

Unfortunately we who are stuck in human flesh can’t purr, and don’t seem to have it in us to be as loving as our dogs.  But when we think on and are reminded by their love for us, be reminded how important that undemanding love truly is.  And though we can’t purr, sharing cookies is almost as good.  And don’t even think about doing that loving licking that dogs do—from them, it’s a blessing—but NOT from you!  But we CAN be sensitive enough to others to pay attention to when they need some care and loving the most—maybe not as perceptively as dogs do, but we can be more intentional about paying attention to others and try.

I know it’s a dog’s life sometimes—but when you think about it, that’s not all bad!  So even if we have a hard time loving others like God loves—we can at least get close when we follow the example of a good loving dog (or cat), so let the furry friends lead the way!

Whether with four legs or two– keep being a blessing!  — Pastor Jim

(and author of “Mr. Snickers Bigglesworth And Other Purrty Pet Poetry”…)

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Pastoral Ponderings—Just Sittin’—20 AUG 25

I’ve told you a bit about my 1953 Ford Golden Jubilee tractor before—It HAD been working great to keep our yard mowed, but over the winter it developed a bit of a leak in one of the big rear tires that I’ve not been able to tend to yet, so it’s been just sittin’ so far this summer.

You can see how bad it is with a big tall weed growing up between the mowing deck and the tractor.  Not a very pleasant thing for my beloved tractor to be just sittin’ over the summer!

It still looks good, I’ve still got bragging rights to a broadly treasured tractor, but it’s obviously not done much this year.  It certainly wasn’t made to just sit—I’m so sorry to be hurting its feelings like this!  No surprise that a weed has been growing up through it like this, though, with it not having been used at all this season.

Sometimes we think it might be nice to just sit for a while—but WE weren’t made to just sit either!  Sure, we get our bumps and bruises now and again, but while we weren’t made for just sittin’, we WERE made to heal from the wounds that come from keeping on the move—so what’s stopping us?

And yes, we too, can sure look good, can brag about all we have done or can do—but if like my tractor, we’re actually just sittin’ too, we’re also liable to have weeds growing up all in our lives—not a pretty thing!   Keep moving, and keep being a blessing!  Pastor Jim

Pastoral Ponderings—Messy Chickens

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Pastoral Ponderings—Messy Chickens

Karol and I recently just started our livestock efforts at our place (if you don’t count bees) with the purchase of some young chicks to raise for laying eggs.  They were on clearance, if you can believe that, I suppose because they were quite ugly.  They were past the cute baby chick phase, and molting—the process of losing their baby feathers, if that’s what they’re called (NOT a pretty sight)– and growing into their real feathers.

They’re not very smart either, which I suppose you might expect, as they are quite literally, birdbrains.  I just realized the shocking truth as I’ve been taking care of these chicks and beginning these ponderings—though Jesus mentions chickens, our four Gospels don’t have any parables from Jesus pertaining to chickens.  Which is NOT to say that Jesus never taught with a parable on chickens, as we don’t have EVERYTHING Jesus said or did.

As I’m thinking back on our efforts thus far with the chickens, I’m beginning to think that any parable using chickens would be even less complimentary to hearers than one about sheep, which is bad enough.  Chickens, like sheep, are not very smart, smelly, scaredy-cats, and pretty much only care to follow their noses (or beaks).  And like sheep, what goes in must come out, but while sheep move on and just leave it there, chickens drop it in their water, in their food, probably even on each other.  Do you really think anyone listening to Jesus wants to hear THAT about themselves?

Maybe that’s why the Gospel writers chose to leave out The Lost Parable of the Chickens—maybe it was just too offensive to suggest human life might be as messy as that of chickens.  But yes, our lives are messy, and we make messes everywhere, and get those messes all over everything and everyone, even (and especially?) on ones we love.  I’m guessing the end of Jesus’ Lost Parable of the Chickens might have ended something like, “And in the same way that the farmer or householder cares for the chickens, smelly messes and all, even the smelliest and messiest of people still have a place in the care of the Kingdom of God.”

Unbelievable, isn’t it, that God truly loves us, smelly messes and all—and that means both you and me—all of us!  By the way—Messy Church is this Sunday at 4:30—a great time to bring smelly, messy friends!  — in the messy love of Jesus—Pastor Jim—

Messy Church at Twin Falls United Methodist Church—TwinFallsUMC.org

Pastoral Ponderings- Blackberry Theology

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My seminary president long ago, a church historian, often referred to “farmer theologians” in early America, seeing the hand of God in the most ordinary things around them as they worked their land.  Those discussions likely had a lot to do with my format for what you now know of as “Pastoral Ponderings,” where, for decades in various forms, I’ve explored God Sightings from the most ordinary of experiences.

I realized this week I have now become one of those farmer theologians myself, as when I was recently harvesting blackberries on our mini-farm.  As I saw more blackberries everywhere I looked, I was marveling in God’s creative abundance.  Then I was noticing that the berries were not all the same—some with about ten, some twenty, some as many as a hundred “drupelets” (the little juicy balls that compose the berries), each one with a seed, carrying its own potential for decades of abundance—almost like a Jesus parable!

Then I looked up, and realized I’d been missing a lot of the berries above my head when I wasn’t looking where those juicy blessings were hiding in plain sight.  I remembered as I continued picking, that they’re not all in plain sight, so brushing leaves aside with my heavily gloved hand to protect from the spikes, I found where many of the most juicy ones were hiding.

It’s a good thing I pick berries with thick sleeves on my arms too–I’ve often had to push through a lot of canes with those vicious teeth to get to more berries! Unfortunately the abundance of these berry blessings is not across all our acreage, though there are other kinds of blessings in other corners of the property.  But if you look in the right place, the abundance is so plain to see!

Are you seeing the great theology here yet?  God blesses in abundance—but we too often don’t see the blessings when we don’t look for them.  Some are hiding in plain sight—just look up!  Others are less evident, until you really start looking.  And though these blessings are available in plenty, when we’re seeking God’s blessings—and to be a blessing to others through them—we sometimes need to push through some pretty thorns places to claim the good.

Some people only see bramble, weeds, bugs, and fallen, rotting trees mixed into the thick forest—even though they are in the midst of the abundance of God’s blessings! What do we need to do to think like farmer theologians, to be able to see the beauty of God sightings, instead of just the weeds?  — ever improving our Vision—Pastor Jim