Jon C. Swanson's Blog

The margins

From Rich Dixon

Last time I talked about a bunch of questions about building bridges to what I see as an increasing population of people living on the margins.

As frequently happens, my conversations with Jesus about this quandary brought me an insight in the form of a quote from Father Gregory Boyle. Speaking at Boston College to a group of students studying to be social workers, Father Boyle said,

“You don’t go to margins to make a difference. Then it’s about you. But you go to mar...

A prayer for the twenty-eighth Sunday in ordinary time.

God.

We feel forgotten.

We know that we should remember that you are with us. We know that we should turn to you and be comforted by you when we are in trouble. We know that we feel abandoned by you. We are sure that it’s our fault, the abandonment, or your fault, the abandonment. And we don’t know what to do.

We confess.
We confess that we’ve been frustrated by where we have ended up.
We confess that we’ve looking around for someone to blame.
We confess that we’ve remembered some of yo...

Questions About Privilege

Rich Dixon asks tough, honest, helpful questions.

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It wouldn’t be much of a stretch to say we are living through some difficult times.

Just in the last week or so we’ve encountered a few people who thought things were okay. Suddenly, through circumstances they couldn’t have foreseen or controlled, they find themselves living on the margin.

I’m pretty sure this isn’t uncommon. Seems like more and more folks are encountering physical, financial, social, or emotional situations b...

A brief note on faith.

I have heard people in hard situations, in grief-filled moments, in procedure-pending moments say, “I don’t understand.”

And I have heard well-meaning people say to them, “Don’t question God. You need to have faith.”

I usually turn to the one in the pain.

“I don’t understand either,” I say. “I’m not sure why you need to be sitting here in this pain, waiting on this procedure, knowing that it may not work. And God’s not mad when you say you don’t understand. Not at all. That doesn’t i...

A prayer for the twenty-seventh Sunday in ordinary time.

God.

We need you.

We need something or someone that can anchor us.
We need something or someone that can steady us.
We need something or someone that can stop changing all the time.

Because everyone and everything is changing all the time.

We are fretting. On account of evil doers.

And we aren’t sure who the evil doers are anymore. Because the people we thought we should trust, those in charge, those who you gave charge to, are fully human.

Are they scheming or are they planni...

Doggies and free will

Sashi, a malamute-wolf-huskie mix,* entered our lives in 2024. She’s the sweetest dog ever! She never barks. She tells us she’s sad by howling when we leave and she can’t come along.

Her only flaw is that she and our cat don’t get along… but that may be more his fault than hers.

And she loves to leave deposits all around our back yard. My OCD side would love it if she did her deed in one narrowly defined corner to make cleanup easier. But that’s not the way dogs work. She’s not being b...

Why These Kids?

Rich Dixon is back after some house renovation work. And he’s talking about commitment.

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“Why don’t you support someone locally?”

Good question, one we’ve heard frequently since we began in 2013. I get it. There are too many domestic trafficking victims and many worthwhile programs that work to serve them.

So, why do we support a group of kids halfway around the world?

The answer is simple – we made a commitment.

In 2013, we told some folks at our church we wanted to do ...

A note at the end of September.

Some of you have noticed in real life (and here) that I’m a bit introspective these days. We’ve lived in Indiana for 40 years, coming here to start my professional career. We’ve lived in our current house for 29 years. I know when my hospital work is done (12/31/2025).

Because I have several other projects, I’m not done with working. I’m already scheduled to teach preaching and spiritual formation in March, and to represent Arbor Research at a conference, and to keep writing. But I’ll be ...

One last shift change

I walked to my friend Dianna from our chaplaincy office on the edge of the Emergency Department out to triage. It was the end of her last shift as a chaplain. She’s retiring.

She’d been up all night. A couple of deaths. She talked with families, talked with nurses, completed the paperwork of death. A couple of other crises that were, for families, resulting in phone calls. “Mom’s here again.” “Dad’s moving to intensive care.

She cleaned out her drawer, all except for her badge. She fin...

A prayer for the twenty-sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time

God.

We need refuge.

With all the voices telling us what’s wrong, we need a place that is quiet.

With all the questions running through our heads, we need a place where we feel safe.

With all the fears for the future of the world, of our families, of our bodies, we need a place where we can ask and answer simple questions:

Is this true?
Is this real?
Is there hope?
Are you?

We know that contentment is part of the answer. That striving for things that don’t satisfy leaves us emp...