Jon C. Swanson's Blog, page 313

Wisdom includes implementation

Yesterday I talked aboutoffering to help the studentsin my speech classes.

I was being fairly generous, I thought.

And there were several students across the years who took me up on my offer. They stopped me after class, they came to my office, they called me. (If there had been email back then, I’m sure we would have interacted that way.)

There were a couple kinds of students who confused me, however.

One group never came to see me. I knew they were struggling, and I renewed my offer often. But...

Looking for wisdom

First published November 15, 2012

I used to teach college students how to speak.

I would tell them at the beginning of the class, “When you give your speech, I will assign you a grade. In that moment, when you are completing the assignment, I will use the standards that I have established. And you will be on your own in the performance.”

I would continue, “Until that moment, however, I am here to help you. If you are looking for ideas for a topic, ask me. If you are looking for ways to approach...

When I don’t know what to ask.

A friend and I were praying. We meet almost every week. We talk about our lives. And we pray for each other.

I said, “You know about the pain. You know about the grief.” and I listed a couple more things that were happening in the life of my friend.

And then I said, “I have no idea what to ask you to do.”

Anything that I could think of to ask for…comfort, wisdom, peace…felt pretty inadequate and pretty redundant. I mean, God already knows when those things are needed, whether we think that he pr...

Picking up rocks.

Last week, at the start of our 90 day countdown, I asked you to pick up a fist-sized rock each day.

Here’s why: We’re talking about changing habits, about becoming more spiritual, becoming more like Jesus. And people usually do that by doing something “spiritual”, trying to read the Bible every day or pray every day. But that’s hard for some of us. Because if we don’t complete whatever the action is, we feel like we’ve failed two ways, one at following through on a commitment and two, at somet...

An engagement of stories

First published August 24, 2012

If I did a webinar about Jesus, I would probably start with a story.

Because Jesus told stories. He didn’t tell nice stories, not really. We think they were nice because we’ve made them nice. But he took dynamite for the status quo and wrapped it in narrative instead of rules. And then attached a slow-burning fuse so that by the time it blew up, you had walked away smiling at what his words seemed to do to the other guy. And then the assumptions that made up the...

getting away from false failure

“May I be released from the bondage of false failure?

I wrote that prayer Tuesday morning. I had been thinking about the times I remember people and think of failure. Not theirs, mine. I remember some way I don’t think Iaccomplishedsome expectation I think they had. Or that I think someone else had for my interaction with that person. Or an expectation that I established for myself.

I know. You think I should write that paragraph more clearly. But maybe I can illustrate it from my first 15 minu...

Getting past the first pushup.

“The hardest pushup is the first one.”

That’s what I’m saying these days. I know that the fifteenth one, or the fifth, can be hard as well. But I am stopped by the first one more often than the fifteenth. These days, in fact, if I make it past the first one, I have little trouble with the twentieth. I need to get down on the floor and start.

You know this principle is true in many parts of life. Starting, while simple (not complicated), is hard (not easy).

It even shows up in our conversations....

thank you friend.

This afternoon I will be on my way to the visitation for my friend Chris. He died on Saturday, a month before his 56th birthday. He died from a pulmonary embolism. There was nothing that could stop it.

We met just before fourth grade, when we moved into a house across the street and three doors down. We played street football and backyard snow football and Stratego and Dogfight.He taught me poker. I took him to work at a camp. He was my Catholic friend. I was his evangelical friend. He was the...

Tracing stories

I don’t know when Lois lost her husband. The first time I met her, she was living with her daughter and son-in-law in a little town in Turkey.

She had at least one grandson named Timothy. She told him Bible stories. The same ones I heard when I was growing up. The one about Elijah taking care of the widow and her son. And Elisha taking care of the widow and her son. And Ruth marrying Boaz and taking care of Naomi, who had been widowed while living as an emigrant. And God reminding the people t...

a fist-sized rock

“What do you need from the next three months?”

We talked about this question last week. Answers include

I need to find out what my life is going to be.
I need to find out whether God loves me.
I need to build some direction.
I need to resolve some complications.
And I need structure.
And I need a plan.

I’ve started look ahead at the next 90 days, from today until August 10. And I think that if part of what you need is knowing God better, I can help. Or maybe, more accurately, I can provide structure...