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Blog postThere are many technologies for making connections with other people. Email. Mail. Text. Messenger. Phone. Post-it. Coffee cup.
There are many reasons for engaging with others. Challenge. Inform. Mock. Scold. Gossip. Warn. Rumormong. Worry. Encourage.
One writer says that your friends can be distracted into believing lies about their identity, about their value, about what can bring meaning. Your friends, the people that you have conversations with, the people you see, th -
Blog postGod.
How are you?
We show up to these conversations, and we talk and complain.
We tell you what we want, what’s wrong with what others or you or we are doing.
And we almost never ask you how you are doing.
Or if there is anything we can get you while we are up.
We almost never bring you coffee, like we would bring a friend, and then sit with you and listen to you unfold stories.
Like the time that you and Abraham met together.
Yo -
Blog postA moment behind the scenes here.
Every post I write has a photo. And they come from my photos, stored in iCloud. (Except the picture in this post. It’s from Megin.)
So every post, I spend some time finding the right (or at least A) photo from six years of photos. As I was looking for a photo for Rich’s post yesterday, I once again scrolled through those pictures. They include pictures of people no longer with us, relationships that have changed, events that were hard in the mo -
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Blog postToday’s words from Rich Dixon invite us to reflect on the pictures we carry of God.
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I’ve been talking to you about Lent, teaching, metaphors, and infinity.
A metaphor connects a difficult concept to a simpler, more familiar image. The trick is creating an engaging image or story that makes sense to students and helps them understand the new material.
Actually, there’s a second trick. Make sure students don’t confuse the metaphor with the real thing.
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Blog postNancy suggested the word “desperation” for today. It’s an honest word.
“Lord, you are the God who saves me;
day and night I cry out to you.
May my prayer come before you;
turn your ear to my cry.”
There is a feeling of desperation in Psalm 88. The poet-lamenter tells God (and us) about a persistent and passionate appealing to God. Over and over, day and night.
“I am overwhelmed with troubles
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Blog postI know that science talks about dopamine. It’s a brain chemical. It makes us feel good, sometimes in an addictive kind of way. I know that it’s a driving force in social media design. Every “Like” is intended to help us feel good, to send a burst of dopamine to the brain. Many of us (because I understand from the inside), are aware of the likes, are excited by the bursts of being known.
However, this focus on being “liked” is deadly to sustained thinking, to quiet reflection, to the w -
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Blog post“…Came from Nazareth to the Jordan and was baptized...”
This is very simple story-telling.
When we are listening to a story, we want the details. We want to know what each person is thinking. We want to know motives. We want each piece of the back and forth of the debate. We want to know the tone of voice so we can tell if someone was being sarcastic and insulting, or respectful and supportive. We want to know everything.
When we are telling a story, we want to choose -
Blog postGod.
It’s the first Sunday in Lent and we are already feeling like giving up.
I don’t mean giving up something for Lent. I mean simply giving up.
We have lost family members and friends and people in our communities.
We’ve lost power and confidence and certainty.
We need you.
You are, we read, outside of time.
With you, we read, a day is like a millennium and a millennium is like a day.
We are, you know, inside of time.
With us, a day c -
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Blog postI’ve had a complicated history with dentists. When I was young, my dentist was in the “this won’t hurt long, you don’t need a shot, do you?” I did.
Eventually, I found a series of dentists who were offered the understanding and the pain-avoidance (and the headphones playing music really loud) that helped me survive the anxiety. I even go regularly for cleanings.
Which is why I was intrigued at the level of anxiety I was feeling on Wednesday about my 8:00 am Thursday appointmen -
Blog postYou already know this. You and I sit with people in the middle of really hard moments. In moments when numbers and percentages and policies and rationales fall away and we feel the sobs in the person next to us. This person, this moment, this diagnosis, this death.
The response to “I’ve never had to deal with this” isn’t “You are not alone. 9,000 other people are saying that on this very day.” It may be, “You are not alone. I’m right here.” The response to “I don’t understand” is not -
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Books By Jon Swanson
"God. We Need You.": A Year of Prayer in a Hospital Chapel (Resources on Faith, Sickness, Grief and Doubt Book 5)
Jun 21, 2020
by
Jon Swanson
$0.99
Other Formats:
Paperback
A Great Work: A Conversation With Nehemiah For People (Who Want To Be) Doing Great Works
Nov 29, 2013
by
Jon Swanson
$0.99
Other Formats:
Paperback
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