Jon C. Swanson's Blog, page 29

Tiny lights.

Four Christmases ago was really dark at our hospital. We were in what we thought was the middle of the pandemic. One of our units of 30 or so beds was in brand new space on the top floor of a new wing that opened in August 2020. And the nurses on that floor, which was a step down from ICU, were having a rough time. “We weren’t trained to be hospice nurses,” one said. Because that’s what was happening.

One Wednesday night, probably two weeks before Christmas, I walked out of the building ab...

Places

It’s Wednesday. I’m grateful Rich Dixon is here:

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I hope you took a moment last time to listen to Kristen’s beautiful lyrics.

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We cycle to bring hope and freedom to kids rescued from human trafficking.

For our final devotion in 2015, I asked Dick Foth for some thoughts about hope and freedom. Dick said following Jesus is a journey in which the notion of “place” is a big deal. He said Jesus made this offer:

I’ll leave My place.

I’ll come to your place.

I’ll take...

Anxious.

God-

We read the news.

It makes us anxious.

Anxious for our families, for our communities, for our world.

We wonder, sometimes worry, what will happen.

Will we be enough? Can we do enough?

Will the people who make decisions make the right ones?

Will those of us who make decisions, make the best one?

God.

You know the news, too.

It doesn’t make you anxious at all.

You care about our families, our communities, our world.

You are enough.

Give us your peace ...

A simple request.

I’ve thought, from time to time, about audience. About the remarkable potential of the internet to talk to millions and millions of people.

But most of us don’t talk to millions of people. We talk to the people who are around us. In the case of this blog, that’s less than 500 people.

I’ve looked some of you in the face, others of you in the heart, still others in the mind. We’ve spent time adjacent to each other, me writing, you then reading.

Here’s my plea to you today, on a day whe...

A prayer for the thirty-first Sunday in ordinary time.

God.

In the US, there is an election this week.

I could simply quote Psalm 146. You are, we read, committed to widows and orphans and foreigners and prisoners and the oppressed and the hungry and those who are bowed down. It is, you say, folly to trust princes who are humans, who cannot save and will die.

I could make veiled references to political questions and people.

I could suggest that you are on the side of this one or that, that you really meant this or that. I could sugge...

Day by day

When I was in middle school, a Broadway musical came out that I loved. My young English teacher was so enthused about the play that she went through the hassles and work to take her entire class to downtown Boston to see Godspell.

“Day by Day” was the album’s radio hit. The lyrics come from a prayer ascribed to the 13th-century English bishop Saint Richard of Chichester:

Day by day,
Dear Lord, three things I pray:
To see thee more clearly,
Love thee more dearly,
Follow thee more nearly,
Day ...

Asking Job to forgive us.

Sunday, I was standing in the hospital chapel, reading the texts for the day. One, from Job 42, resonated oddly.

Between the words where Job says, “God, you are right. I don’t understand your ways,” and the words where Job has more kids and stuff, God talks to Job’s friends.

We read, in the formality of one translation, “My wrath is kindled against you and against your two friends, because you have not spoken of Me what is trustworthy, as My servant Job has.”

I think that this is an ...

Anyway

Rich Dixon talks about what we could be doing.

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I frequently chuckle at myself as I create these reflections.

It seems this journey has been about learning, then relearning, the simple principles Jesus explained to His disciples. And then trying to practice them.

Perhaps that shouldn’t be surprising. Perhaps that’s what following is about.

Last time I told you about meeting my friend Scott at a book signing, about rekindling his long-dormant dream of a round-the-world bike r...

He understands.

In Hebrews, we read that we have a high priest who know us, know about us, knows what it’s like to be alive, knows what it’s like to lose friends and family members, to struggle with a lack of food, to see discrimination and to respond to it.

In his walking around earth, Jesus apparently watched his step-dad die, heard about the murder of his relative and colleague John the Baptist. He stepped across gender and religious boundaries to have meaningful conversations with a Samaritan woman an...

Getting to God.

Bartimaeus had one goal. Get the attention of Jesus.

As he was by the road, he heard a hubbub. A crowd was moving toward him. He asked what was happening. “Jesus of Nazareth is coming,” he was told.

For Bartimaeus, this isn’t a curiosity, this is opportunity for life. Because for Bartimaeus, this isn’t a street preacher, this isn’t a celebrity, this isn’t an event. When he starts to call out, Bartimaeus says, “Jesus, Son of David.”

That was a different thing to say. That was a noble ...