Jon C. Swanson's Blog, page 9

Cranking and Honest Talking

Rich Dixon is back.

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I’m going to do something a bit different and respond to one of Jon’s posts.

It’s the story of Martha and Mary. More accurately, the story of Martha getting upset because she didn’t think Mary was doing her share. And she wanted Jesus to notice.

I think I’ve told you before that I spend a lot of time talking to Jesus while I crank my handcycle. For some reason, this post sparked quite a conversation.

I’m certainly not the guy who sits around trying to l...

Bread, please.

Buried in the middle of the prayer is a simple daily request. “Give us this day our daily bread.”

It doesn’t feel like a demand. I hear it as a request, actually. There is a poignancy to it.

At a time when day laborers depended on receiving their wages daily so they could buy that day’s bread, this is a request for basic human needs. For a people whose ancestors wandered for decades in a wilderness eating bread delivered daily, this was a contemporary expression of an ancient reality. ...

A prayer for the seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

God

We don’t understand.

At any given moment around this hospital those words describe someone’s heart.

We don’t understand why the treatment isn’t working. Or why it is working.

We don’t understand why they are still together after 68 years. Or why this relationship isn’t working.

We don’t understand why so many things are happening to us right now.

We don’t understand what the next step is, what you are trying to do here, why “you took” their child, his joy, her pain.

W...

On ongoing conversations with God.

So Martha finally erupted.

And Jesus talked to her.

Not in the way she wanted. Jesus did not tell Mary to get up and help. He simply told Martha that she needed to pay attention, to not get distracted about the WHY of the work.

On the other hand, Jesus didn’t tell Martha to stop working. After all, the whole group needed to eat.

What we don’t know, but perhaps could guess, is that Martha may have had a servant who was helping. What we don’t know, but perhaps could guess, is that a...

A Persistent Thought

Rich Dixon has us thinking about implications.

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Does an idea ever rattle around in your brain, and you just can’t stop thinking about it?

A couple of weeks ago, I told you about Dick Foth speaking to the Freedom Tour community. I keep hearing him say, in his calm, grandfatherly voice, “Everything that happens today has eternal consequences.”

It’s one of those things you know if you follow Jesus, but something about hearing it in that context made it especially resonant.

Rela...

Prayer and honest talking.

Martha likely owned a house in Bethany. Her sister Mary and her brother Lazarus lived with her there. We know from events a couple years later that Lazarus will die and be raised again. We know that Martha will understand who Jesus is far better than we read here. We know that she will keep hosting large groups of people.

But on this day with this house full of guests, Martha is feeling pretty frustrated. And Martha is willing to ask the person who she believes is causing the problem to fi...

On praying and talking.

“In the lovely name of our Lord Jesus.” That’s how one of our friends used to end prayer.

“Father Dear”. That’s what another friend would say instead of “Dear Father”

The way we structure our conversations with people is a reflection of the kind of relationship we have with them. The kind of relationship we want to have. The formality, the topics, the timing.

I think about the ways we talk when we do the thing we call praying in contrast to the ways we talk when we do the thing we ca...

A prayer for the sixteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

God.

It’s been a long week.

We know that it’s been exactly the same 168 hours that every week has, but you know that the feeling of time is different than the counting of time.

You know that minutes spent waiting for answers are longer than days spent living with the answers.

Paul talks about the hope of glory, and I think he’s talking about a confidence that comes from the certain anticipation of being with you in your glory.

We confess that we don’t have much confidence. And ...

The Barrett Clan

Rich Dixon invites us to meet some friends:

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This photo is the Barrett family on the day of the FREEDOM TOUR CLASSIC.

Jon & Jennifer invited this entire group – kids, mom & dad, brother, nieces & nephews – to travel from Springfield, Missouri to join us. They ranged in age from Jon’s parents to munchkins. Everybody rode and had a blast.

Except – Jon isn’t in the picture. As I told you last time, he had to skip the ride to deal with a crisis involving women and children in the s...

Grandpa John.

I always sit on one end of the sofa. Last week, across a couple days, I ended up taking three photos of coffee cups while I was sitting in that spot. Three different photos. One with tea, one with coffee, one with decaf.

I think I took naps after two of those cups. I’m becoming a bit like my grandfather who took naps every day after lunch. He’d be out early, working. He’d eat lunch, take a nap, and go back out to work.

But he always was in to watch Walter Cronkite at 6:00 pm. Sitting...