Author Archive: twinfallsumc

Pastoral Ponderings—Rooted

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We recently rented a trencher to dig a trench through our yard to take electric out to where we’re often “camping” by the pond, and where we’re putting a permanent pavilion out in that area.  Since the yard is full of beautiful trees, we knew it would be full of roots, so rather than struggling with a simple shovel and pick, we rented this trencher that SHOULD have made the task easier.

I’ve seen these things being used—looks a lot like a giant chainsaw on a small tractor-like base for digging through the ground.  Seeing how they worked, knowing the limited area of our trenches, and that it only had to be an 18” deep trench, I thought it would be a pretty easy 2 or 3 hours’ job.  But it was an EXAUSTING, all day event, and with some of the roots and rocks the machine couldn’t get past, it’s still not done!

I wasn’t surprised at how MANY roots these trees have spread out even far from the tree trunk, but was surprised how even small roots, the diameter of pencils and nails, were giving that piece of heavy equipment such a hard time!  Though each small root might have been easily cut through, even without heavy equipment, together, they form quite a durable source of rootedness that has helped these trees last through all the storms of life for almost 100 years.  And other trees with great roots in other places make these trees look like babies.  When we were visiting the Holy Land, it was common to see olive trees well over 1000 years old, some even old enough to have had Jesus walk in their shade!

So how rooted are you?  It’s not just about having one great tap root, nor even the spread of the huge roots I was desperately trying to avoid on this project—it’s the abundance of tiny roots that both provide strength, and the source of sustenance for the trees.  The same is also true for us.

It’s not just the handful of our most primary strengths, but the abundance of those Little Things that provides the strength and sustenance to make it through.  Are you spreading your roots through all of life’s nooks and crannies, finding strength and sustenance from the abundance of bite-sized blessing God pours out on us each day?  Staying deeply rooted in Jesus is certainly important—but it is in counting our small blessings and reflecting on our daily God Sightings that really bring our strength!

Stay rooted—Pastor Jim

Pastoral Ponderings—Trapped!

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Pastoral Ponderings—Trapped! 

Before the summer is too far gone, I’ve to share these ponderings with the attached picture of the racoons in the dumpster.  Many of you may have seen this coon-sized conundrum before–some more than once, as it’s not too uncommon—racoons who follow their noses and somehow get stuck in the dumpster.  “Silly racoon!” we might think, “How could you get yourself in such a fix?”

The silly beasties just follow their noses without much thought about where it might get them until it’s too late.  But how often do we do the same kind of thing—likely not into a dumpster—but just following our noses or whatever “feels right,” without thinking too much about it, until we find ourselves just as stuck in a bad place.  Maybe we’re not that much smarter than a racoon after all!

Most of us have heard more than enough about where temptation can lead us.  Whether it is into some kind of trouble, or, when we give into the temptation to start our own “poor lil’ ol’ me” party– “Nobody knows, the trouble I seen, nobody knows my sorrows…” rather than listening to God’s wisdom through the scriptures.  If we keep busy loving our neighbors, do we have time to get ourselves into trouble, or for our own pity party?  If we follow scriptural guidance to focus on the good stuff, where’s the pity party to come from?  Or if with St. Paul we practice “I’ve learned to be content in all circumstances” (written while he was in prison, by the way), and to “give thanks in all circumstances,” isn’t that like “pack up your troubles in your old kit bag and smile, smile, smile…”?

That racoon did NOT look very happy, stuck it the dumpster.  I don’t know about you, but I generally don’t like getting stuck at all.  So even if we’re not smart enough to follow the wisdom of the Bible, maybe we can learn a lesson or two from silly racoons, stuck in a dumpster!

Follow Jesus rather than your nose!  Pastor Jim

Pastoral Ponderings- Weird Spirituality

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Pastoral Ponderings- Weird Spirituality

How might an accordion, a dancing Darth Vader and Storm Troopers, and some perhaps slightly offensive song lyrics give us a glimpse into the Kingdom of God?  Sounds weird, doesn’t it?  Or it at least sounds like Weird Al Yankovic.  I have no idea about Weird Al’s personal spiritual life, and that really doesn’t matter. But when the God who made the universe is often known to work in mysterious ways—wouldn’t it be simple enough for God to work through a weird concert?

Karol  and I were blessed to be a part of one of his concert experiences recently, at an outdoor venue (Blossom) where you had to get there early, so we took a picnic to start our time.  The first weirdness was when I dropped something on the way to the picnic table, and before I could reach down to get it, a perfect stranger dashed over from a table fifty feet away to help out.  That’s strange.

Then I first started to sense something deeper when walking with the crowds from the picnic area—I’ve never seen so many “Hawaiian shirts” in one place before, or such a collection of very interesting people—all basking in and embracing the mutual weirdness of the event.  Then, when Al came onstage (not that I’m on a first-name basis with him, but he did say/sing, “You can call me Al”), while singing his opening song, “Because I’m tacky…” and wearing the clothes to prove it, he was winding his way through the crown, “pressing the flesh” as politicians say, to connect with the people.

Several times through the concert he went out of his way like this to connect with the people.  And throughout the concert, through the songs and the micro-culture of the event, both he in his performance and we in the crowd, thoroughly enfleshed a celebration and acceptance of all, from the most ordinary to the most eccentric of revelers (it was a Weird Al concert, after all).

It was almost like someone went out to all the highways and hedges to bring in all the people who are too often excluded and pushed off to the margins, almost like one brief shining moment of living in the Kingdom of God as Jesus described it.

Years ago when we were in seminary, our seminary president, Len Sweet, who described himself as a “futurist,” preparing us to serve the Church in decades to come, told us something like “though the Church is struggling to reach our communities, I’m completely convinced that God will still be pouring out His grace and proclaiming the Good News to our communities—even if it might not be through our churches.”

I hadn’t realized it before, but I think God is a fan of Weird Al as well, since I certainly experienced enough clues of His presence at the concert too!  It was really weird, but a profoundly grace-filled experience that felt a lot like a glimpse of the broadly embracing arms of the Kingdom of God.                     –Pastor (“Weird”) Jim

Pastoral Ponderings—Neighbors

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Pastoral Ponderings—Neighbors

Not all neighbors look nor act as kind and wonderful as the furry face of this neighbor, Mindy (her people DO fit that wonderful bill—but not rumor has it that not ALL neighbors do…).  Wouldn’t it be easy to follow Jesus’ call to love our neighbors if they were all like Mindy?

I’ve noticed that quite often we in the preaching world find ourselves preaching to ourselves—seeing what God has for us in the scriptures, and then all of a sudden, it’s really for US.  It’s not uncommon to hear preachers saying “Now I’m really preaching to myself this time…”  Makes me wonder if Jesus sometimes found Himself preaching to Himself—like perhaps with this passage?  Might Jesus have ever had some challenging neighbors He needed reminding of the need to love?

Now you might say that “Jesus was perfect”—true enough.  But that doesn’t mean Jesus’ NEIGHBORS were perfect!  And as we know, Jesus dealt with temptation too—which implies Jesus was subject to falling to temptation just like us (else what’s so special about Jesus’ being “perfect” in not sinning, if He never had the capacity to sin in the first place?).

But even when we shift from thinking of a “neighbor” as an enemy, Jesus had that covered too.  Might Jesus have been gazing into the eyes of one of the Pharisees in the crowd plotting against Him, when those memorable words slipped from His mouth—“ love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you”?

I’ve got wonderful neighbors living around me now, though that’s not always been the case, and some of the other “neighbors” Jesus’ is pointing me to, don’t always fit this description either.  Come to think of it, Mindy hasn’t always been that friendly to me, but now that I’m feeding her this week, and loving on her a bit, that’s certainly changed!  Might she be giving us a clue to how to turn enemies into friends on a broader scale as well?

Scratching the chin just might help… Pastor Jim

Pastoral Ponderings—Play!

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Pastoral Ponderings—Play!

Have you ever noticed how close the words “play” and “pray” are?  Only one letter—but close in concept as well.  In play we have a good time, usually with others, usually with communication and laughter.  And isn’t that the same—or SHOULDN’T that be the same with our prayer—only we’re having a good time, communicating, even laughing with God.

It’s pretty clear in the Bible that God created humanity to have others to play and laugh with.  All that was created was to be blessings, and to bless humans in countless ways.  And if you’ve ever wondered about God’s sense of humor—just look at how funny it is when men and women try to understand and relate with each other!  And it’s not just people—you’ve likely noticed that animals of all types play too—and the more developed the animal is, the more they play!  There’s even a whole field of study in science called “the science of play,” studying how important it is both in human and in animal development.

When in our creation stories, God seems to be careful and intentional in the many facets of creation, you can bet your britches that God was intentional in inventing play and laughter too!  Problem is that as we “mature,” we see play as being less important, maybe even childish, so very many of us actually forget how to play!  And if we forget how to play—how to have a good time with others and with God, look at what happens to what we call prayer!  All too often, we seem to be of the opinion that when it gets to be time to pray, it must be time to “get serious”—meaning no more smiles, laughter or fun.  It’s usually a lot better for our human relationships when we enjoy our time together, when we smile and laugh together—where do we get the idea that God’s not interested in smiles and laughter?

Try an experiment this week—find more ways to play, smile and laugh with our human connections, AND with our prayer—our God-connections, and see what happens to our prayer lives.  I bet you’ll notice some positive change, AND more of a sense of closeness with God.  Whether it takes a child, a cat, a stranger or someone you’ve known forever, remind yourself what it’s like to play with abandon, and what that kind of play does both to may you feel better, but also to help you better connect with God.

Remember the old adage—the family that PLAYS together, stays together!  Keep on playing!   — Pastor Jim

 

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

Pastoral Ponderings—Knee-boarding

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Pastoral Ponderings—Knee-boarding

Even for continuing education events, you’ve got to have a little fun!  So, one morning last week before the continuing ed part got started, Karol and I had the opportunity to do some knee-boarding at the top of the Chesapeake Bay where our training was.  Though it took a little while to recover from both inhaling part of the bay and straining muscles I don’t use so much, it was a lot of fun.  It was a good thing we didn’t have a better camera with us, else Karol would likely have had action shots of me taking a face dive off the board that she would be only too eager to show off!

If you’ve ever (successfully) gotten up on the water being pulled behind a boat, you know it’s something of a balancing act—keeping a balance between the energy of the pull, the pressures of keeping the board under you, and keeping the nose up.  Have you ever found out what happens when you don’t keep the nose up when you’re being dragged behind a boat?  It’s not pretty.

You’ve probably noticed that life, too, and each of our spiritual journeys, are full of competing pressures.  What pulls you through?  You’ve probably found out the hard way, too, what happens when you’re being dragged through life’s pressures and aren’t able to keep your head up—not pretty!

Not only is God eager to keep pulling us into His embrace, the Bible is full of clues and insights into how we can keep our nose up through all of life’s pressures—AND how to get back up when we get dragged into an ugly face plant that threatens to drown us!  “Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors” we pray every week, a reminder straight from the Bible that God is in the business of new beginnings!  What “keep you head up” passages come to mind for you?  I’ve got too many coming to mind!

Staying connected to the One who keeps on pulling us through—Pastor Jim