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Blog postAnd I’m not a very good dancer.
You see, I have no rhythm. Moving my body to the music doesn’t work very well.
The photo features me and my daughter at a daddy-daughter dance several years ago. (She’s in college now.) I felt bad for her that her dad was not the best dancer at the party – far from it. And I feel bad for my wife along the same lines.
Somehow they both still love me.
Life has changes in tempo and tune, just like the music we dance to. Sometimes it -
Blog postIt means, literally, bad sound. It’s a word we use to describe a construction site, or an active accident scene, or an orchestra warming up.
It’s a word we could use to describe the noise of expectations inside our heads. Or the clashing ideas from our friends sharing and expressing opinions on social media.
It’s a word that we could use to describe our lives.
And it’s the word that Nancy gave me to write about.
I could, of course, point us to Psalm 4 or Psalm -
Blog postRich Dixon has spent a lot of time following maps. So when he questions them in today’s post, it’s worth paying attention.
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I think a lot about compasses.
It’s weird, because I couldn’t tell you the last time I used a real, physical compass. On the other hand, we use lots of maps on our bike tours.
Start here. Follow this road. Turn there. We’ve learned the hard way that good maps make everything go more smoothly. Beginning with “a general idea of the route” -
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Blog postSome short thoughts.
I wrote half a post on Psalm 77. It was about how we want formulas for so many parts of our lives, and this psalm suggests that formulas don’t work. I had written it based on one translation of verse 10. And then, as I was writing, I looked at another translation and read, “Then I said, “’it is my grief that the right hand of the Most High has changed.'” And now I have to spend more time than I have tonight to reflect on the idea, maybe, that sometimes God w -
Blog postWe all have stories that we tell ourselves. Everyone talks about the idea.
On a Sunday a few weeks back, our prayer was about the middle school insecurities we carry for a long time. After I wrote it, but before she read it, Nancy and I were talking a little about the challenge of forgiving the people that told us those stories. I told her about the guys in junior high, a year ahead of me, who called me “Sargent Carter” as I walked down the hall before school.
It’s a reference -
Blog postGod.
We are asking you for signs all the time.
We are asking you for directions, for plans, for meaning, for answers.
And you told Philip to go to a road in the desert that led to nowhere.
I could be wrong, but I’m guessing that though it was an angel, it wasn’t a message written in the sky.
I’m guessing that it was a nudge, a thought that wouldn’t disappear, an awareness that he needed to go and that it was you that was making him aware.
And th -
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Blog postWe were standing together in a room–a spouse, a couple adult children. “Eddie” was in a hospital bed.
We’d all met about forty-five minutes earlier, down the hall in a waiting area. All of us but Eddie. At the time the rest of us met, Eddie was in the bed, a team of people gathered around his bed, doing everything they could to help his heart start beating reliably on its own. Eventually, all they could do became “Nothing more we can do.”
The family went to the room for the la -
Blog postI read. A couple psalms, including 70. I say to myself, “reach over an get your pen and journal.” I also say to myself, “look at the weather app.”
And 10 minutes later (okay, 12), I have my journal. (Okay, 15 minutes).
Whatever observations I had about Psalm 70, whatever prayer I wanted to write out for those on the other side of the world evacuating families from villages before the attacks from herdsman arrive is gone. The psalmist talked about those “who want to take [their -
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Blog postTrue confession. I almost didn’t write here about my newest publication project.
This Is Hard is a collection of things I say to people in the moments and hours after a loved one dies. They are words that I’ve found sitting in rooms and walking down the hall and looking in the mirror. They are the responses to things people like you and me say in our moments of loss.
I almost didn’t write about it here because I was a little afraid that it’s not spiritual enough.
It is -
Blog postRich Dixon has a confession today. (I understand. js)
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Confession time: I react too much to exterior stimulus.
That’s a fancy way of saying I get really upset about events I can’t control. Those close to me (my wife) would tell you my reactions often spiral into disproportionate levels of negativity and depression in other parts of life.
Some of that’s just me, but one reason I write and share is I have a sense that I’m not alone. I suspect there are others -
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Titles By Jon Swanson
This Is Hard: What I Say When Loved Ones Die. (Resources on Faith, Sickness, Grief and Doubt Book 6)
Apr 23, 2021
by
Jon Swanson
$2.99
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God. We Still Need You.: A Year of Pandemic Prayer and Practice From a Hospital Chaplain
Mar 23, 2021
by
Jon Swanson
$5.99
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"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
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A Great Work: A Conversation With Nehemiah For People (Who Want To Be) Doing Great Works
Nov 29, 2013
by
Jon Swanson
$0.99
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