Jon C. Swanson's Blog, page 2

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...

A note about tears.

There is, in the Bible in Revelation 21, an image of tears being wiped away. And no more tears or death or mourning or crying or pain. It’s a fixture in funerals, it’s a last reading.

I hear it, from time to time, used as a reason to stop feeling bad. “Because of that then, you should feel better now.”

What if the one who wipes tears away is one who also cried tears?

imagine Jesus on a hill, looking over Jerusalem and weeping.

Imagine Jesus walking near a town and seeing a funeral...

Morning.

Just a simple greeting this morning. I hope you can take a moment.

Gratefully,

Jon.

Two or three

Today I’m talking to a group of people who care about people.

Nurses and social workers and chaplains and pastors who are giving up time and attention to learn more about caring for the grieving and lonely. I’m grateful for the opportunity, anxiously hoping to be helpful. Aware that these are people who make a massively small help in mostly tiny spaces with audiences of two or three.

When we measure impact, we think most about the numbers of people or dollars or words. We think less a...

A new season

Sometime today, Monday, is the fall equinox. For daylight, it’s all downhill til December 21.

Back when I paid attention to seasons, fall was my favorite. It felt like the perfect season. I could explain why, but then some of you would say, “exactly” and others would say, “but what about this other season?”

What if, instead of saying (and hearing) “This is the perfect season”, we said and heard, “I really like this season.” And then, instead of arguing or expressing an opinion, we cou...

A prayer for the twenty-fifth Sunday in ordinary time

God.

Sometimes we feel like we could weep all the time because of the pain we see around us. Sometimes we feel like we are crushed.

Sometimes we feel like weep like Jeremiah wept.

And we struggle to know how to talk to you.

Because Paul tells Timothy to pray for those in authority and Jeremiah weeps because of the destruction that came from those in authority.

Paul tells Timothy that God wants all people to be saved and Jeremiah weeps because of the crushing of the people of Go...

Chaos and memories are almost the same.

My desk is in chaos at the moment.I could blame Ben, of course. He stood here at wanted to see all the tools in (one of the) mugs I use for writing utensils. And then he wanted to see “that”. The orange thing. And I got down the small truck my dad brought home from a trip decades ago, the one that was broken when I got it, the one with the tiny plastic tires that have come off the wheels for the same decades.He left his phone here, the one his mother and uncle played with, the one ...

Listening to Messiah in September.

Tuesday evening, Hope had sectional rehearsals for Philharmonic Chorus. Last Saturday, the chorus and the FWPhil and some traveling musicians sang the music of Queen. Tuesday, they were working on Handel’s Messiah.

And at the moment, I’m listening to side two of my three vinyl disk recording, released in the 70s of a performance in the 1950s.

I usually need quiet for writing, but there are a handful of classical pieces I can listen to. I’ve listened so much that the novelty has worn of...

A long ride toward being helpful.

Since March 2020, Rich Dixon has been writing here every Wednesday. It was his way to help me out as my hospital work got intense. He’s taking today off. The floor underneath us in the photo is being refinished and he’s offline for a bit.

I decided to run this post I wrote a few years ago about Rich and Becky. They were at our house, we’ve been to theirs. I’m grateful for the ways that connections made online can last. And change your life.

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Rich and Becky Dixon are friends. The...

Looking for Jesus in the hospital

I think we wonder sometimes if Jesus knows we are in the hospital. The shepherd unaware of the sheep who are here. 

Because if he knew, he’d be here, right?  Climbing the stairs, two at a time. Holding up a hand to stop the protestations of public safety. Winking at the RN, asking the tech for a blanket, and then telling the patient, telling you, to stand up and walk. After a month of tests, after a decade of illness, after a day of the tiniest of NICU breaths, a miracle. 

All the well ...