Author Archive: twinfallsumc

Pastoral Ponderings— Warmth on a Cold Night

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Pastoral Ponderings— Warmth on a Cold Night

Still cold. I thought last week’s 9 degrees was bad—this morning was -9! But bitter cold like this isn’t all bad. Closing the doors against the cold can open doors too! To ward off the cold last night, we had our neighbors over for dinner and games. After all, too cold to “go out” doesn’t mean too cold to go next door!

It’s not quite a “regular” thing to have dinner and a game night with the neighbors, but it is a common enough thing that now it’s not unusual, and it started a couple years ago with the simplicity of delivering Christmas cookies to get to know the neighbors. But whether it’s neighbors you don’t know, you barely know, you’d like to know better, or the closest of friends, the same line can warm any heart on a cold night: (addressed to said neighbor) “Hey, it’s pretty cold out. Would you like to warm up over dinner/coffee/cocoa and a game tonight?”

What’s the worst that could happen? They could say “no,” but then that’s no different that your prior plan without inviting them! I suppose it could be worse if you invite them over and some disaster happens— like they might break a tooth biting into something unexpected in the ice cream you offer, but how likely is THAT to happen? (I didn’t actually BREAK a tooth on that nugget of steel in the ice cream—just almost—but that’s another story…)

It’s much more likely that you might finally catch up with the neighbor you’ve barely said hello to for years. Or you might bring some warmth into a cold and lonely life. Or you might find that God has set up this opportunity for some wonderful blessing. Or you might just have a good time and grow a friendship– and wouldn’t any of those much more likely outcomes be a Very Good Thing?

One of the most well-known and whole-heartedly embraced of Jesus’ teachings is to “love your neighbors.” But these days, even we Jesus people who have turned that earth-shattering teaching into a bland platitude, too often, barely even acknowledge the existence of our neighbors. When was the last time you actually did something loving for one of the neighbors next door?

I’m proud of you if you can remember the last time you did something loving for your neighbor last ________ (year, month, week, last snowfall, whatever)! But why not tonight? If loving your spouse, dog, kids, parents, friends or whomever is an ongoing thing, isn’t that just as true for your neighbors?

Love your neighbor. It’s a cool thing (or a WARM thing!). It’s an easy thing. It’s a Jesus thing. — A simple reminder from Pastor Jim

Pastoral Ponderings—“Baby, it’s COLD outside…”

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Pastoral Ponderings—“Baby, it’s COLD outside…”


On days like today, “Baby it’s COLD outside…” is usually among the first things out of my mouth along with the icy fog on my breath.  I want to sing “O what a beautiful morning!”—but it’s the cold that strikes first!

Or not—because cold doesn’t really exist!  Use your favorite search engine or ask your favorite science teacher if you don’t believe me.  What we describe as “cold” is really the absence of heat.  “Heat” is a measure of energy, a “thing” that “is,” while since cold is not a thing, but an absence, it cannot actually be measured.  I was shocked when someone first pointed this out to me!  How can something so real as our experience of cold, not be real at all!  The thermometer says it’s only 9 degrees out this morning– if that’s not COLD, what do you call it?!

My favorite artificially intelligent internet scientist friend says “Temperature is a measure of the average kinetic energy of atoms in an object or space. The more energy the atoms have, the hotter the temperature.”  The more the movement, the more energy that we perceive as warmth is present.

So why the science lesson, when we just want to bundle up in our blankies with our hot cocoa?  For the spiritual insight “cold” brings, of course! (even though cold doesn’t exist!)   We often either hear or bemoan the fact that “it’s a cold, hard world,” which all too often seems so true.  And when loneliness, the lack of human warmth and connection is called an epidemic by our most senior public health officer, perhaps it’s as factual as can be.

If people around us experience the world as a cold, hard place, and warmth comes from movement, what movement are we making in relation to those around us, to help bring warmth into their lonely lives?  If we’re being blessed in our churches, or helping people in some distant place, but our cold, lonely neighbors aren’t there, sure, that’s warmth, but at best, only the warmth of a fire in the distance.  Doing for others, even in the distance, is always a great thing—but when Jesus calls us to love our neighbors, I doubt He just means our neighbors in the distance.  He likely also means our neighbors in the most ordinary sense of the word, our neighbors breathing the same air we do.

Make the movement to bring some warmth to your neighbors.  On a day that the temperature never makes it out of the teens, even the warmth of store-bought cookie dough creations would certainly be welcome!  Keep being a blessing of warmth!

–Pastor Jim

Pastoral Ponderings- Intentions, anyone? 

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Pastoral Ponderings- Intentions, anyone? 

So we’re now into the first few days of 2025—anyone broken their new year’s resolutions yet? There’s still time! To avoid that frustration and try to help people do better, I’ve been hearing a little change in that language more and more, suggesting new year “intentions” rather than resolutions. Might that work?

Whether with “resolutions,” “intentions” or whatever, we usually think this time of year of ways we’d like to grow in the new year—so what are you praying about for those growing edges this time? Most all of us often think of things like eating better, spending more time with important people in our lives, that sort of thing—but don’t forget your faith journey too!
A more consistent prayer life perhaps? A plan to read through the Bible in a year? Finding ways to get more comfortable sharing with others? All great intentions! With whatever plans, remember the scriptural encouragement, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me,” and “in our weakness, He is made strong”—great thoughts to remind us both that we’re not alone in this, and that God is eager to help us along the way.

One of the strengths of the early Methodist movement hundreds of years ago was how they developed a variety of “methods” to intentionally grow in the faith (hence the name detractors started called our forebearers, as “methodists”). One of those “methods” included meeting regularly together for accountability, asking the question of each in attendance, “how goes it with your soul?”

So how goes it with YOUR soul? Where do you need to grow in your faith this year? Do you trust that you CAN do all things through Christ? Do you trust that God can make us strong, even in our weakness? It’s easy to have doubts—but don’t your remember that one of Jesus’ superheroes was best known as the doubter—yet was still one of Jesus’ superheroes–so even our doubts are not show-stoppers!

Story goes that Ben Franklin in the deliberations at the Continental Congress in 1787 kept looking at the image on the chair George Washington presided from. Was it an image of a sunrise or sunset, he pondered, as a sign of the beginning or the end of their adventure? Each new year, each new day, is a new adventure for us—and WE know, that we’re not adventuring alone! Make it a new sunrise for your faith!

So in your new year intentions, keep your spiritual growth on your list, and make it a new year full of blessings! Pastor Jim

‘Twas the Day After Christmas…

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‘Twas the Day After Christmas…
(Based on the wonderful meter of Clement C. More, with a nod or two to Dr. Seuss)
J. Richard Lewis
‘Twas the day after Christmas, spirit was waning fast
And the bones and the ghosts of the splendid repast
Were evident here and unmissable there,
The tatters of Christmas scattered everywhere.
Is that Jesus knocked from nativity bed,
And a poor broken shepherd, fallen down on his head?
The lights look askew from their cheery right place
And the tree looks akilter, somehow lost its grace.
The gifts and the toys, once so cheery and bright,
Some already broken, oh no, what a fright!
Lost pieces and cards from puzzles and game
We’d hoped could be different, but each year just the same.
The moon on the breast of the new-fallen snow,
Now hiding, leaving nothing but mud here below
Barely out of my bed, but I’m already worn,
As I wade through the remnants, this post-Christmas morn.
O the turkey the trimmings, the stuffing and pie,
The remains of our feasting fill fridge and my eye,
The counters are cluttered with cookies galore
And there’s crumbs and some wrappings still lost on the floor.
The pounds from the cookies encircle my waist
As the holiday cheer seems to flee with great haste.
Is this all that’s left, besides bills and now cleaning?
Is there more from these parties for spiritual gleaning?
Must Christmas, with price tags, just come from a store?
Or might it, perhaps, bring us something much more?
Is Christmas now over, gone quick as a wink,
There’s got to be more, I sure hope and sure think!
If Christmas BEGINS twelve days of God’s blessing,
Why, then, is it put away with leftover dressing?
Are the twelve days of Christmas but a marketing ploy
Or could there be more than fleeting Christmas joy?
We’ve eleven more days of this spiritual feast,
Even if season’s shopping left us feeling fleeced.
What might each day bring, if the Spirit we live,
If we reshape the question, “what gift would you GIVE?”
We’ve eleven more days, people’s spirits to brighten,
Finding ever more ways, others’ hearts to enlighten.
Who, then, might we pray for, in this season of hope?
Let’s rather spread cheer than that post-season mope.
The Gift’s just begun, we’ve more blessings to bring!
Don’t let humbugs tell you there’s no more to sing!
‘Fore the joy of the season gets packed out of sight,
Let Christmas keep shining to God’s great delight!

Pastoral Ponderings—A Win for Cookies!

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Pastoral Ponderings—A Win for Cookies!

There’s nothing particularly special or artistic about our cookies, but as with the potential magic any Christmas cookie can bear, they carry a spiritual power nonetheless. Nothing fancy about how it works, either—just trying to show how easy it is to be a blessing and build bridges: We baked Christmas cookies like many people do. We even decorated our gingerbread cookies while trying NOT to compare our efforts to the Hallmark movies’ mythology of kids making artwork of cookies in no time flat! Ours turned out somewhere between remarkably ordinary and “that’s nice…”

This is our third year of taking an afternoon to try to deliver cookies to neighbors. So I saw a car in the quiet drive across the street where I’d hardly seen any sign of life across the months, and gave it a try. I knocked on the door, and surprisingly enough, a serious, reserved face showing many years’ wear, met me through the tentatively opened door. I said “hello, neighbor. I haven’t met you yet, but my wife and I wanted to bring you some Christmas cookies.”

The reserved, cautious look instantly melted, and when the eyes of my quiet neighbor whom I hadn’t yet met, landed on the cookies, the huge smile on HIS face was so heartwarming to ME! But that was only the beginning. A few days later we got a knock on the door—rather unusual for our rural location—with my now smiling older neighbor’s daughter stopping by, poinsettia in hand, saying “I’m a night-shift nurse, coming home wishing I had Christmas cookies, but hadn’t the time to make any, but when I got home, there they were!”

We knocked on other doors to no answer, and delivered a few others to more smiles to folks we had met with previous cookie deliveries. But it’s always magical when the cookies build a sweet bridge for the first time!

It’s too early to know whether this brief, simple exchange merely brought a few smiles, or is, as Bogart would say, the beginning of a beautiful friendship. But does it really matter? He didn’t bite me when I knocked on his door, nobody got hurt and no animals were injured in the process, and whether just a few extra smiles, or the beginnings of God’s doing something special, it was both simple and rewarding.

I’m eager to hear YOUR stories of the magic of cookie ministry—please share! And if you haven’t delivered cookies yet, there’s still time to both be a blessing for others in this simple way, and in the process, add your own smiles to your Christmas season. And it might even start a beautiful friendship… Baking the blessings—Pastor Jim

Pastoral Ponderings— Do you Hear… 

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Pastoral Ponderings— Do you Hear…

“Said the night wind to the little lamb—‘Do you hear what I hear?’” For a long time, this was one of my favorite Christmas songs—but not so these days. It’s still a lovely tune with a lot of wonderful renditions, but have you noticed the lyrics? They’re an imaginative re-telling of the Story—and there’s nothing wrong with that—but this retelling goes way off base. The Grinch does another imaginative re-telling, and though a children’s cartoon, it has much more substance than this one!

This song presents a merely feel-good Gospel, but there’s SO much more to Jesus’ Gospel than just a warm nostalgia to ward off winter’s cold, so much more than merely “tidings of comfort and joy,” as another song puts it. I had a New Testament professor in seminary who said he would only teach a Gospel course so often (rather than from Romans or one of the other NT letters), because when you really encounter Jesus, it can be dangerous, scary, and dramatically life-changing, whether we’re looking for that or not!

“Do you hear what I hear?” we could all ask—but the night wind’s whisper tells not just about a child sleeping in the night. Sure, this is where the story begins—but Jesus’ story also takes us through the transforming teaching, sacrifice and resurrection of Jesus—calling us not to the toy store, but to the altar. When we truly hear Jesus’ call, we recognize that, as Jesus’ hands and feet in the world, we’ve got a lot of big jobs ahead of us! It’s so much easier, though, just to buy more Christmas gifts, send a few off to Toys for Tots to help us feel better about ourselves, then turn the Christmas music back on.

Another question that distracts us and leads us in the wrong direction, is “What do you want to GET for Christmas?” Shouldn’t we instead, in following Jesus’ example, be asking something more like “What do you want to GIVE for Christmas?” Perhaps we should ask again, “Do you hear what I hear?” and be as eager as that little lamb or shepherd boy to keep on telling the REAL story of Christmas.

Keep being a blessing this season of great blessings- Pastor Jim

Pastoral Ponderings—Dreary

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Pastoral Ponderings—Dreary

“’Tis the season to be … dreary?”—not quite how the song generally goes, but it certainly could be an appropriate song hereabouts for this time of year. Someone I was talking with recently we bemoaning the weather, and I quipped back, “We’ll likely get to see the sun again around the middle of March…” For some strange reason, she didn’t find my response very helpful.

Sometimes it’s more than just the weather that feels dreary in our lives—whether your life situation, an illness, depression, current events or whatever. I was feeling a bit of that on one of the more dreary days recently when I took the attached picture, with the intent of the reminder that the sun will shine again, and that poem I recently mentioned floating through my head—“I believe in the sun, even when it is not shining, I believe in love even when no one is there, I believe in God even when He is silent…”

I’ve been in an airplane more than enough not to doubt that the sun still shines, when, on dreary days like that, taking off and climbing in altitude until all of a sudden we break through into the brightest of sunshine. The sun does still shine—even if to say so is a statement of a faltering faith.

Thanksgiving reminds us that it is in GIVING thanks—not in “feeling” thanks—that we find the blessings! (Besides, a holiday called “Thanks-FEELING” just doesn’t have much of a ring to it!). Have you noticed how much it lifts your own spirits when you deliver a smile or laugh to someone else who needs it too? Give it a try if you haven’t lately!

Find someone to bless this Thanksgiving, and find yourself even more blessed! After all, the sun IS still shining, even when we don’t see it, and it always starts to shine through the clouds when you help others see it too. Let your little light shine!—Pastor Jim

PS—Though we’re still eager to clearly discern and share the kind of vision that helps us better share with others, we’ve not had any takers on the leadership retreat, so we’ll need to pray, discern, and talk more about it among ourselves—which we can continue both in informal conversation, as well as in our times together, so keep on praying!

Pastoral Ponderings— A Griswold Christmas

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Pastoral Ponderings— A Griswold Christmas

Though I don’t know if I’d show it at a church movie night, the Griswold’s Christmas Vacation with Chevy Chase may well again be showing on your TV screens in the coming month, accompanied by much laughter and jolliness.

While not the kind of vacation the family might ask “Where are we going?” this time, as it’s more of what we might call a “staycation,” we still get a sense that Clark (Chevy Chase) had a pretty clear vision of what kind of Christmas vacation he was hoping to bring—or where they might be figuratively “going” with this vacation.  His vision didn’t quite materialize as planned, but this fact doesn’t change the importance of his vision (though it does bring a lot more laughter!)

Likewise, the vision of “where are we going?” for we churchy folk is equally important, even if we don’t get it quite as expected.  If we don’t know where we’re going, or if we can’t agree on where we’re going, our efforts might look as crazy as the Griswold’s Christmas!

On Saturday, December 7 from 9-3, all three of our congregations’ leadership groups will be meeting together to help each other shape our somewhat similar, somewhat different visions of “where are we going?” in the coming year.  Save the date—and look for more details in the coming week, and please plan on coming and contributing, even if you’re not normally on the leadership team.  Maybe Clark’s Christmas vacation would have gone better had he SHARED the creation of the vision with the rest of the gang!  Let’s share on this together so we can perhaps come closer to our vision that the Griswolds did, and maybe bypass some of the explosions and calamities they faced!

Pastor Jim, for a not-so-Griswoldy Christmas

Pastoral Ponderings—What’s next?

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Pastoral Ponderings—What’s next?—Nov. 5, 2024

So the big day is upon us—time to vote!  The way things have been looking in the past few weeks and months, no matter what happens, many of our friends and neighbors will be happy, many will be angry.  Yet some way or other, we’ve got to move forward.  No better time than this to remind all, ourselves included, of our Campaign for Kindness—and the bit of wisdom on our sign, and similar signs from more than a thousand other churches around the country—“Do unto others” as you would have them do unto you.

Such a simple rule, yet so powerful, you might even call it “golden”!  I’ve a professor whose life’s research was focused on truth, beauty and goodness across time and cultures.  One of the books he wrote coming out of this life of research, was focusing on the fact that most cultures and religions around the world have some version in their own words expressing that same virtue—to treat others in kind, respectful ways, as we ourselves would like to be treated.  Regardless of whether we agree with those others or not, whether they are friends or not, whether we like them or not—still, treat others with the same respect and kindness that we ourselves might want.

And regardless of which way the election goes.  Isn’t that what Jesus would do?  And isn’t that our primary calling in life—to be like Jesus?  Regardless of how this or any election, or any worldly mess turns out.  Be like Jesus.

So what’s next?  I don’t know, but whatever it is, I hope it includes loving your neighbor, regardless of how you or they voted!

Do unto others.  It’s the Jesus way.  And no matter what, keep on praying!–   Pastor Jim

Pastoral Ponderings–Clinging to the Good

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Pastoral Ponderings–Clinging to the Good

Darling Wife Karol has been preparing for a hike that I don’t get to go on.  Karol is helping our Army kiddo move across country for the new assignment in California—and they’re doing a stop by the Grand Canyon for a hike to break up the drive—I’m jealous!  So we’ve been taking some hikes to help her get ready, and rediscovered I suppose you might say, the Nelson Ledges trail, only about a half hour from our place.

I’ve always found such rocky wonderlands fascinating in so many ways, not the least of which is how huge trees can seemingly defy gravity, and cling to the walls of such cliffs.  Is there a message in that phenomenon for us?

If huge trees can defy the powerful forces of gravity to cling to rock walls, can’t we perhaps do the same?  Our faith proclaims in so many ways, to cling to the GOOD, live a love that encompasses everyone, including our enemies.  Is our faith as strong as these kind of trees, or will we instead, lose grip on the good, and fall away?  Which is stronger, our faith, or those pernicious forces that would glorify the language of hate, prejudice, fear-mongering, and other nasty things?

Dig our roots deeply into the good, into the grace that God offers, into the love God calls us to, whether in good times or bad, whether we agree or disagree, whether we are welcomed or disparaged, this is the way Jesus showed to “hold fast to the good” (I Thes. 5: 21)!

Keep on keepin’ on in our Jesus walk—Rev. Jim