Tag Archives: faith

Ponderings collection— The blossoms are blooming!

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When the blossoms are blooming and the buds are budding, how often do you hear those awe-struck words, “I just LOVE this time of year!”?  We can all celebrate that it is now that time of year again, with flowering pink cherry trees and more, being lovely flowering reminders of the beauty of God’s creation almost everywhere you look, including on the way into the Twin Falls parking lot.

 

I was trying to get a good picture of one of these trees, but on all sides, the beauty is marred by bare, dead-looking branches under the blossoms.  And when you start looking closely, you start seeing the imperfections and damage on the trunk and limbs there as well, despite the glorious display in the blossoms.  Have you noticed how briefly these trees share their beauty?  Then after the blooms fade, it’s just a rather ordinary looking tree.

 

Does this limitation, though, or the dead branches or other damage, change the fact that we get to enjoy this kind of passing glory each year, even if only for a moment?  Then I realized that these imperfections might be part of the point when God creates this kind of beauty.  How often do we in our more ordinary lives, end up focusing on the naked branches and wounds in life, and miss the beauty along the way, or focus on how fleeting the moments of glory are, instead, grumbling of the preponderance of the mundane?

 

Even in the Garden of Eden, there still had to be dirt, bugs and shadows (though the thorns, brambles and mosquitoes MIGHT have only come later with sin coming into the world…)—but that’s not what we focus on with the Garden of Eden, is it?  When we lose our focus on paradise, we just might realize that ordinary life is full of limitations, dirt and brambles—but through it all, WE get to choose on what we focus!

 

St. Paul reminds us of this fact, and the power of where we choose to focus in his letter to the Philippians (find it yourself- you’ll likely find other great stuff along the way!).  Of course if we still choose to focus on the dead branches and dirt—God’s blessings, beauty and glory are still there– even when we keep ourselves from seeing it.

 

On what are you choosing to focus today?  The flowers these days make it easy—but God’s blessings are still there for those who have eyes to see, even when the rain comes.

Pastor Jim

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- Houseplants

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Pastoral Ponderings- Houseplants

Have you ever heard your houseplants fussing at you, or begging for more water or fertilizer?  I don’t recall ever hearing them, even when they’re dying of thirst (not that that happens TOO much…)—and I daresay that would be a memorable experience!

When we were in seminary, we had a lovely vining plant that we or I had had for several years—I think it was a philodendron.  It seemed happy and healthy enough, hanging in the bright, sunny bathroom window.  Then we left for the summer, and entrusted its care to a young neighbor.  When we came back and went to pick it up—its growth had exploded, growing more in those three months than it had in the past three years, in the same kind of bathroom window facing the same sunny direction.  It had grown so much, it was deeply entangled in the blinds in the girl’s bathroom.

Since we realized it obviously loved her more than us (though she said it was her heavy metal music tastes it responded so well to), and being so entangled, we just let her keep it!  Though it grew so much better for her, we never heard a peep from the plant all the time we had it, saying it needed more this, that, or the other thing (or heavy metal music, for that matter).

Have you ever noticed that our lives of faith are in some ways like our houseplants?  They bless us and others in their beauty, in their blossoms, often in their reproductive giving—anybody want any spider plant or aloe vera babies?  Yet they—like our lives of faith—never fuss or complain, and are not vocal at all when we neglect them, even when they’re desperate for water or feeding.  When we have eyes to see and pay attention, they show us signs of growth, as well as signs of need—and they usually respond joyfully to our care and attentions.

Have you been taking time to notice how you’re doing in your faith journey?  Have you been intentional in the care and feeding of your relationship with God, or might it be quietly showing signs of needing care, like my aloe, or even desperation, like my Christmas cactus?

Your house plants and your faith can only be a blessing to you, to others, when you are intentional in caring for it, regular in watering it, and when you keep it bathed in the light of the Son.  Keep on growing!                       –Pastor Jim