About This Tumbleweed

Tumbleweed photo courtesy of Photographer Sue Ellen Blackman Thanks!

Tumbleweeds start life as rooted, woody plants, but break away from their roots in autumn.  As the wind carries them along they scatter seed far and wide.  Farmers on the Great Plains often consider the tumbleweed to be a nuisance.  Yet, it’s widely believed that 19th century farmers were responsible for the tumbleweed’s arrival on this continent.  German-Russian immigrants from the Ukraine brought stow-away tumbleweed seed along with flax seed to South Dakota in the late 1860’s.  Their attempts to grow the flax seed proved unsuccessful.  But the tumbleweeds literally took off.

Tumbleweeds provide food for deer, birds, prairie dogs, ground squirrels, mice and other small mammals.

I’m a second-career  ELCA Lutheran pastor.    Being a pastor has been a truly transformative experience, and it has taken me to very different parts of the country and some very different parts of the church.  I’ve been called to serve in the Midwest, the Great Plains, and in the Rocky Mountain region of the United States.  This business of being called and sent to pastor a church is much like breaking away from one’s roots and being blown by the wind, scattering seed along the way, much like the seed-scatterer in Jesus’ Parable of the Sower.  Along the way I’ve met some amazing people and have been blessed that they invited me into their lives as their pastor.  I have tasted great joy and great sorrow along the way.  I’ve discovered there are a few people who managed to make it through very tough lives with humor and laughter.  There are also a few people who have made it through life with a chip on their shoulder and an ax to grind.

Writing, theology, humor, motorcycle riding, photography, and exploring nature are some of my interests.  I believe God is reflected in the diversity and beauty of creation and its creatures.  We humans are at our best when we mirror God’s compassionate love to those around us and when we in turn are able to receive such love.

Yet I’m also a fan of good, rapier wit, much like you find with Mark Twain.  Twain once said, “If you pick up a starving dog and make him prosperous, he will not bite you. This is the principal difference between a dog and a man.”

And here is one that hits a little closer to home:  “Most people are bothered by those passages of Scripture they do not understand, but the passages that bother me are those I do understand.”

But he also said, “Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great.”

It’s in that sense of greatness that I hope this becomes a great blogsite and I hope you find it to be so as well.