Jon C. Swanson's Blog, page 319

More about distractions

Jon and I both struggle with distraction. His recent post on being distracted got me thinking further (once I focused a little and pushed a few distractions out of the way).

What did Jesus do? He had to deal with a lot more distraction than I do, since he was extremely popular. Three incidents show his struggles with trying to get something done and being pulled away.

Jesus was on his way to heal a man’s daughter. A sick woman reached out to touch his robe. She felt that would be enough to brin...

a blessed life.

(First published July 13, 2014)

When you pick up a book of poetry or a book of song lyrics, you have to work.

You cannot read Gerard Manley Hopkins or W.H. Auden or Bono the same way you read Malcolm Gladwell or Donald Miller. With poems, you have to stop often, read out loud at times, look in your heart for images and understanding.

The book of Psalms is a book of poetry. It takes time to read and reread. But that what keeps people going back.

Here’s a reflection onthe first of the psalms.

Psalm...

The hugless morning.

I wanted to give her a hug.

We were at a leadership team meeting, three women and I. One of the others was leaving after the meeting to travel home for the funeral of her grandmother. As often happens in early April, it was going to be a snowy time. And she was grieving her grandmother.

The meeting was good, I’m assuming. I don’t actually remember. What I do remember is standing outside after the meeting, wishing that I could give her a hug. But I didn’t know her well enough. And it would have...

Being an April fool.

I should have guessed that starting a new job on April 1 wasn’t a good idea.

I’m not sure who picked that date. I can imagine that it was my own choice. It gave an opportunity for a laugh when I told people. In the middle years, when I was trying to figure out how to escape, there was a sense of fatalism. What should you expect from a job started on a day characterized by jokes, by mocking, by pranks? But now, a couple of decades on, I’m a bit more comfortable with the humor.

I took the job wit...

Monday morning reflections

Do you ever get to Sunday evening full of thoughts and lacking the energy to develop them? Yes, me too.

Here are a weekend’s full of thoughts. Feel free to develop them yourself.

In class on Sunday, I asked a question that I have often asked in discussion settings: “Who is your favorite member of the Trinity?” It’s always an interesting conversation.
I was thinking about the characteristic of God that is most compelling, at least as a way to being talking about God. Without thinking too much, I...

Developing images

I only wanted to upload a couple photos from the microSD card. It was going to be faster than sending the images one by one from my stupidphone.

I didn’t realize that the card had photos from both Nancy and me, from last night and from 2008. And because the numbering scheme of the phones we use is odd, all those years were mixed together.

There was a photo of my dad, gone for almost three years. There were good photos from seasons I’ve not wanted to remember. There were images from events I’ve...

Characterized by distraction

“Don’t let your life be characterized by distraction.”

I wrote that in my journal Tuesday morning. I’m not sure why.

I mean, I know that I wrote it as I was taking some notes on a mentor’s last letter to his closest follower. A couple blank lines later, I wrote “Timothy, let your life be characterized by a wholehearted devotion to…” And then I didn’t finish.

That’s what my journal looks like. Many short sentences, incomplete thoughts. I’m working out conversations with God, with you, with myself...

What I mean when I say pray.

(first published September 12, 2007)

I have had some people ask me topray for them recently. I’ve told some other people that I am praying for them. I realized that I probably better tell you what I am doing when I agree or offer to pray. After all, it could be dangerous.

————–

Picture a conversation between a dad and a child, in kitchen of the house, early in the morning. The dad has been up for a long time and is on his second cup of coffee, the child not as long, but long enough to be sitting...

Offering counsel.

“I am not a counselor,” I said. “I give counsel.”

I should have been clearer about that when I was talking to my conversationalist of yesterday. I often say that when people begin to talk with me about struggles and challenges and pain. A counselor is trained in techniques of helping, of therapeutic caring. A counselor develops a care plan, works toward health.

I am not a counselor. Instead, I listen to God and for the struggle. And I consider the stories of the Bible, the teachings of the Bibl...

Sad feels better than manipulated.

She was committed to lying to herself. Or to me.

I want to believe she was committed to lying to herself. Because that would make her story incredibly sad. But sad feels better than manipulated. If she was committed to lying to me, then it means that she knows a difference between two stories and chose to tell me the one that is false. To win favor from me, to gain comfort, to find compassion.To get me to intercede.

The first, somehow, feels more hopeful.

When I first talked to her, she expresse...