Pastoral Ponderings—Bumps

When I was a kid, I LOVED my bike!  I was one of the kids who was always riding around the neighborhood, or better yet, biking around on our trails or the track some friends and I made in a couple vacant lots behind the house.  The trails we always used were conveniently on the way to the friends I usually spent time with, and while I didn’t know it at the time, along a public easement or something with a drainage ditch, and in some places, strategically located dry ditches right next to each other, so that on the bike, it was one huge bump right next to the other.

On the track we made behind one of our friends’ houses, we put in both a berm at the big curve so we could take the turn faster, and several bumps of various sizes along the track that became our ramps and jumps.  We spent countless hours on those jumps, bumps and track, sometimes together, sometimes just on my own—how could a kid ask for a better life?  Funny thing is, what made it so good were the bumps and obstacles—I doubt it would even earn memory space in my brain if not for those trails and bumps and the many crashes they brought!

Why is it that the bumps and crashes that are the foundations for the adventures of our young lives, and the substance of our most treasured memories, seem to be what we try most to avoid as adults?  We go to great efforts as kids to either find or create those bumps and relive the crashes through our best stories, yet as adults, it’s very different.  Any realistic assessment of life, and wherever we find ourselves, recognizes that bumps and crashes are an inescapable and essential part of the fabric of our lives.  Can’t we as adults find ways to embrace them again?

Our Army kiddo Kaz just recently sent us pictures of a couple “Tough Mudder” type obstacle runs Kaz and the roomie had a ball with—adults looking for bumps and obstacles to have fun with!  But what about in our normal lives?  Life is truly bumpy—sometimes more than others, sometimes with obstacles that may seem insurmountable—but weren’t those the most exciting when we finally made it past when we were kids?

What might change in our lives if we embraced life’s bumps and obstacles, if we recognized life’s imperfections and looked at them as a part of the adventure of life, rather than dreading them fearing utter failure?  Might it bring more fun and excitement back into our too often dull adult lives?  Sure, sometimes we fall and get bumps and boo-boos—but that’s what bandages and kisses are for!  And don’t we learn more from mistakes and failures than success?

Here’s to the bumpy road!  Pastor Jim

Pastoral Ponderings- Think about it… 

I saw a big truck this week that was painted up like a portable billboard, as so many are these days, and it caught my eye as I’m sure was the intent.  But I think I saw something there that wasn’t intended!  The truck was advertising a convenience store proclaiming it was SO convenient, that the character on the truck was excitedly proclaiming, “I don’t even have to THINK about it…”—and the ad goes on to imply that numbed, non-thinking brain as a REWARD??

From at least as far back as Socrates some 2500 years ago, and getting a huge resurgence in Western culture– even a “renaissance” one might say with the Enlightenment era of the 15^th and 16^th centuries– “thinking” has been highly valued the world over.  Yet this traveling billboard proclaims it a “reward” that “I don’t even have to THINK.”  What’s going on here?

Have we gotten tired of thinking?  Would we rather let someone else do our thinking for us?  Do we think someone else can know God’s thoughts for us better than our own sense of God’s discernment, or should we follow others’ thoughts that God is too inconvenient for us these days?  Has thinking become so inconvenient (per the “convenience” store “reasoning?”), that it has become more a bother than helpful?

The accidental father of our Methodist tradition, John Wesley, in one of his many letters, expressed how important reason, or the responsibility of good thinking is to faith: “It is a fundamental principle with us [i.e., Methodists] that to renounce reason is to renounce religion, that religion and reason go hand in hand, and that all irrational religion is false religion.” (Letter to Dr. Rutherford: 28th March 1768).  In other words, an irrational faith, such as one based on a “greatest commandment” of love, expressed in what appears to be hateful ways, makes no sense, and can thus be no true faith.  Think about it (if it’s not too inconvenient…).

That stuff inside our skulls is not there just to keep our hearts beating and ensure our faces keep their shape, God put it there with its vast capacities to explore the glories of God’s creation and graces, and to find creative ways to share God’s love with a hurting world.  I’m sorry if that seems inconvenient.  Just thinking– perhaps God has better plans for us than merely our convenience?  But what’s the use in thinking like that?

Just keep thinking—Pastor Jim Lewis—Twin Falls, Ravenna and Charlestown UMCs

Pastoral Ponderings- Son Spots—

This has been a great season for heavenly signs—first a great eclipse, now the Aurora Borealis visible across half the country, and even here in Ohio!  And have you heard that even in OH we’re likely to see the Aurora Borealis more often in the coming year due to more sun spot action in the coming months?

I don’t know all the ins and outs of how it works— though I’ve heard it all comes about from action by the sun—something about CMEs (Coronal Mass Ejections), whatever that means.  I was disappointed to “only” see a colorless though dramatic gray sky, while some friends just down the road (Thanks Kelly!) got WONDERFUL shots with all the color and drama we often hear about.

I’m fascinated by the beauty of the event, that I’ve usually just seen on TV or in the movies.  But though I don’t understand all the details of how they work, that the work from powerful stuff coming from the sun seems to be a wonderful parable of nature and our language working together.  The sun sending out powerful bursts of energy brings beauty for those who have eyes to see—many don’t even look, or are unwilling to get in the right place at the right time to see.

Change one letter and you have a great image of what God does to send out great burst of His energy of grace that brings both beauty and great transforming power– The SON sending out powerful bursts of energy brings beauty for those who have eyes to see—many don’t even look, or are unwilling to get in the right place at the right time to see.

Lord, give us eyes to see the glorious signs of the power of what You keep sending out way in Jesus!

Pastoral Ponderings–New Wineskins?  

I recently walked into a Veterans organization to ask a few questions—and for an organization that, like many churches, has long been having a decline in seeing newer, younger faces (and in that context, mine is still a younger face!), you would think they would be eager to see and welcome a stranger stopping by.  But it felt much more like an almost hostile environment, as if I was invading some secret ritual (like drinking at a bar??).

Contrast that experience to what I heard of from our currently running United Methodist General Conference dealing with several very contentious decisions.  One of our denomination’s leading pastors, who was giving video updates of the proceedings, said “This Conference is different, it’s special, there’s such a sense of joy and hope” filling the air of the 800 some delegates from around the world—in contrast to the past 8 such conferences he had been a part of across almost 40 years.  Our Bishop’s brief message echoes that same sense.

Among other things, he was reporting last night that a legislative committee’s much-anticipated work pertaining to LGBTQ issues would be going to the full vote this morning that could reverse the past fifty years of restrictive language pertaining to many of God’s children.  He pointed out with his collection of Methodist “Disciplines” (the book containing official UM rules and policy) going all the way back to 1808–spanning more than 150 years of dramatic growth in the denomination–that our Methodist policies never had any restrictive language about gender issues until 1972.  It was in that year that our United Methodist policies changed to include restrictive language pertaining to gender issues—which also roughly corresponds to when the denomination (along with many others) started showing significant and consistent patterns of decline.

The first part of that official vote happened this morning, with some 93% of delegates from around the world in favor of removing restrictions on ordination, and allowing for (though not requiring of any church nor pastor) marriage and full inclusion of church members identifying as being in the LGBTQ+ world.

Many of us, including Karol and I, know, love, and care deeply for persons and family members falling under this umbrella—have you ever thought of these loved ones as less loved by God?  I doubt it!  Please remind ALL of God’s children, that we are ALL welcome at Christ’s table, and welcome to fully be a part of the life of our churches.

Keep being a blessing to all God’s family—Pastor Jim

Bishop Malone’s less than 4 minute update– https://vimeo.com/941746069

UM News article with more detail– https://www.umnews.org/en/news/40-year-ban-on-gay-clergy-struck-down

Pastoral Ponderings—Swamps and Kintsugi 

Part of our relaxation this week in Williamsburg has been geocaching along some of the trails we’ve been hiking.  I’ve not usually thought much about swamps when Colonial Williamsburg has come to mind, but I found out that though Jamestown just down the road, part of “Virginia’s Historic Triangle,” though the first permanent English settlement, was not destined to greatness due to its being nestled in a swampy area.

Though I grew up in FL with the TV series “Flipper” set in the Everglades ever in the back of my mind, I’ve always thought of swamps more as places of decay and mess that I’d rather avoid.  Yet it turns out that swamps are not only one of the most abundant biomes around, that it is a place of decay also means it is a place of abundant renewal of life, that I didn’t really realize until walking along these swampy trails, hearing the abundance of birdsong, and passing a group of excited birders with their cameras and binoculars eager to gab about their many avian sightings.

And in God’s ever amazing providence, I also stumbled this week across an art form I’d heard about long ago, but that I never took notice of, but that is now fascinating me, which goes along with swamps and renewal (at least in my twisted mind), a Japanese art form known as kintsugi.  Kintsugi is the art of mending broken pottery, or the art of creating beauty out of brokenness.  It is also built on a philosophy of accepting what is, and has been a part of finding or even creating beauty again after loss and grief.

You will likely hear more of these intertwining themes from me in the coming months, as these kind of “God-sighting” inspirations tend to bleed over into what I do.  Makes me want to ask the question, where do we find places of decay in our lives that we just want to turn our backs on, rather that seeking to create beauty out of the places of brokenness?  Or why do we find these kinds of places in our lives leading us to question God, rather than seeing God’s wisdom, as a golden thread throughout the Bible, just like the golden threads in kintsugi, showing us that God’s grace is sufficient for us, that God’s power is made perfect in our weakness?

I’m betting we all have these places of brokenness in our lives.  Can we be open to the new thing God might be doing in our lives to help us create beauty in these broken places?

Doing God’s art together- Pastor Jim

Pastoral Ponderings— It’s Raining Again… 

“It’s raining again…”—that’s all I remember of that old song that keeps floating through my head on the abundant puddles from our incessant rain, though I’d rather the more positive “Singin’ in the rain…” be what I’m focusing on.  I’ve written about rain and dreary drizzles before—it does seem to be a common theme around here this time of year– and even though our El Nino winter forecasts “warmer” prediction held true, the concurrent “drier” part of that same forecast did not hold water this year, if you will pardon the pun (or not!).

It’s too early in the year for me to focus on the joy of rain bringing new life to my garden, but as I woke up this morning with the sound of rain drops and my septic tank alarm continuing to beep for hours on end for too much water, a different thought sprung to my soggy brain—exoplanets.  That’s planets outside our solar system, but more specifically, the ultimate importance of the need for this same liquid water endlessly falling on us, as one of the essential preconditions for any “life as we know it” to exist on any cosmic body (yes, I have strange thoughts in the mornings…).

As much as we complain about rain, it is essential to our lives in so many ways.  We don’t tend to appreciate its importance, though, until we get too dry and drought conditions set in.  Even the ancients who heard God’s voice to describe creation, in the very first thought of the Bible, told of the existence of water before anything else—“1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 2 The earth was formless and empty, and darkness covered the deep waters. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters.” (Gen. 1: 1-2)

And yet we complain.  How’s that for appreciation (says I, in a voice dripping like the rain with sarcasm)?  Why is it so much easier to complain than to show appreciation for the wonderous intricacy of God’s plan and creative engineering?  That water can be liquid, and thereby able to be a fabulous solvent essential for the foundational processes of life, that it can coexist in all three of its forms in the same environment (solid, liquid gas—haven’t you heard how alarming it is when glaciers are melting?), that it expands in solid form, unlike most things that condense in solid form—also necessary for NOT having totally frozen oceans—are all essential facets of God’s creative genius allowing for life, is nothing less than awesome.

How many other of God’s wonderous miracles and amazing grace come in hidden forms like the rain that we so often complain about?  Maybe we should take some time to go out “Singin’ in the rain” about God’s often hidden, but amazing grace, to remind us how important it is to appreciate how great is our God.

Pastor Jim