Pastoral Pondering—Leave Your Mark

Pastoral Pondering—Leave Your Mark

We recently did a quickie overnight ski trip to Peak-n-Peak just across the NY state line (I highly recommend the place!).  Our room had a loft in it, and the morning before we left, I noticed that some mischievous little rascal had left their mark in a harmless, fun way.  The kiddo had left a little action figure barely visible, keeping watch over the room and the snow on the loft support.  Not obnoxious like graffiti or carved initials, just leaving a littl friend that I hope to see again on our next visit!
 

Whether we intend to or not, we all leave our marks (are we building a theme with last week’s note?)—will we leave them in fun ways, ways that make a positive impact?  I just recently sent off a text, too, to an old friend I hadn’t connected with in years—he much more so, and his daughter ever so briefly as well, had left their little superhero marks on my soul in our past interactions. Their coming to mind out of nowhere led me to reach out again—is it a random firing of neurons in my brain that brought a smile and beautiful memories, or perhaps a nudge from the Holy Spirit?  Nothing lost either way with sending off a quick note.
Little bits at a time of these kinds of positive marks can often build up into something beautiful.  I love seeing the ice stacks when I’m skiing, where, a little bit at a time, the snow makers build up beautiful sculptures of ice along the trails to bring even more joy and beauty to the experience.  Of course, the snow itself on which we ski is the same—little bits at a time that God sends to build up into paths of beauty and joy.
So often in life and in our spiritual journeys, it’s not the big things, but the little things building up like this, that create the beauty, that bring the joy, that touches souls.  What small investments are you making in the lives of those whose paths you cross?

Keep making beauty, bringing truth, goodness and joy—Pastor Jim

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

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