Pastoral Ponderings—Surprise!

“Meet me down here in Boardman,” Karol sez on the phone when I’m out in the back picking blackberries.  I had already unloaded 3 boxes weighing about 200 lbs. each of one pergola from one store, but she was in another store finding what looked like a “better deal” that I just had to see to “help” decide on (some of you spousal types know what THAT means…”).  So I had to reload those three very heavy boxes (one of which FELL APART in the process, so let’s rebuild a box now…) to return that one and drive 25 minutes to check out another—“Surprise!”

The “catio” addition to our place we’d talked about as maybe one day getting to, was coming to pass in the midst of my picking another gallon of blackberries to add to three more gallons we were planning to can that afternoon.  Now I can’t complain too much, as it was my idea to “one day” install a catio—but the timing isn’t quite what I was hoping for!

Isn’t that often the way it is with God’s calling and blessing on our lives?  “Surprise!” sez God—“I’ve got something for you better than you can imagine!” but God’s timing seems to be so inconvenient sometimes!  Ever wonder what Moses HAD had planned for the day he saw that burning bush after he thought he had retired to the quiet life?  So that day certainly didn’t turn out as planned, but we ended up with something so much better, that should be done by the time you come over for our Christmas open house.

When we live our lives in faith, open to what God has for us, the surprises God has for us can transform our lives.  Had Moses not stopped for that burning bush, we likely would never have heard of him, but look what happened when he did!  And don’t forget that neither Abraham nor Sarah, like Moses, were not spring chickens either when God greeted them with that ominous word “Surprise!”

What surprises might God still have up the sleave for you yet, if you’re willing to take the call?  It will likely be inconvenient—but isn’t that the way surprises usually come?

Pastor Jim

Pastoral Ponderings- Wayside Sacrament

“Don’t you bring that inside!” Ken insists, as Darling Wife Fern carries in yet another treasure of the beauty of God’s creation to their house filled with other similar treasures, with pictures (and puzzles I was also invited to work on) of the National Parks, and family handcrafted nature crafts.  “I’m just taking it out back…” Fern replies, as she carries the protested feathers in the door, likely to the back porch “catio” where many such tangible “God Sightings” can be found.

A great beginning to a week of sabbath rest and immersion into the beauty of God’s creation as our souls are being refreshed by both great teaching and signs of divine Presence everywhere.  Ken and Fern have a piece of poster art hanging on their wall that in the foreground depicts a bird, looking like one of those Audubon Society prints, on what looks like a copy of a post card, signed in flowing print, “R. W. Emerson.”  The cursive script in the faded background reads, “Beauty is God’s handwriting, a wayside sacrament.  He prayeth well who loveth both man and bird.”

The feathers Fern carried is from such a beloved bird—nothing “special”—from a common mourning dove—are now displayed on the porch as a “wayside sacrament” of a simple visit with neighbors where God’s presence was relished for a moment.  Sitting talking with Ken’s mom, Sharon, whom I know has seen that print hanging there hundreds of times, I asked if she’d noticed some detail of the image, and she replied, “I’ve seen it so many times, I must have just not noticed.”  How true it is that we have so many times seen such wayside sacraments, the handwritten love letters from God all around us every day, that we so often don’t even notice?

Lord, give us eyes to see Your handwritten notes of beauty around us, that we, too, may relish each day these wayside sacraments of Your presence, so common, so ubiquitous, yet so easily missed.   Pastor Jim

Pastoral Ponderings— Jesus is my chainsaw? 

Don’t you just hate it when that happens?  We’ve often been camping around the 4^th of July, and too many times in recent years, we’ve had a tree or big limb fall down, either fully or partially blocking our drive.  Well, we didn’t go anywhere this year, but STILL had that happen—this time a tree-sized limb, that didn’t completely block the drive—but you should have seen how much it blocked before I had cut off all the foliage from what had been the top!

When this started happening a few years ago, we bought a battery-powered chain saw that has saved the day many times—and saved the day again this time!  Now I’m sure we’re not the only ones who have had obstacles fall in our way—it may not always be a tree, but obstacles just plopping in our way is just a pretty common part of life.  So what’s the chain saw that you pull out to help clear the way?

I like to think of Jesus as my chain saw—not to have Jesus violently rip apart every obstacle!  But to have Jesus and the tools Jesus brings, be what I use to be my Plan A for when I run into an obstacle.  With this huge limb, I’ve not yet cut the whole thing apart, but taken a bit here and there of what needed to be cut off to clear the path—a good example of how not all obstacles have a quick fix.  But we need to find ways to mitigate obstacles big and small, and find Godly ways to face when obstacles don’t have a fix.

You’ve probably heard me before talking about one of my current favorite Jesus tools found at Philippians 4: 6-9, which in a nutshell is to pray about the negative, but focus on the positive.  Not that doing so takes away all life’s negatives and obstacles, but focuses us on the blessing’s God is always pouring out in abundance, even in the midst of or despite whatever bumps come our way.

What’s your chainsaw—your primary tool for facing and overcoming obstacles?  You can count on more obstacles coming your way—better find tools you can count on too!

Keep being a blessing- Pastor Jim

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