October 2011 – 300 words a day

October’s done.

“Don’t let USC beat you twice.” That’s what Brian Kelley, football coach at Notre Dame, told the team last week. It’s what coaches often tell their teams. On October 22, ND lost to USC. On October 29, they were playing Navy. The challenge for the team during their preparation process was to quit thinking about […]

by Jon Swanson

pages, dogs, sabbath and slack.

If you read this blog by Mailchimp email, you didn’t get anything from me on Thursday. You are getting two posts today. It wasn’t that I didn’t write anything for Thursday morning. It’s that, with more than 2000 posts written at various blogs, I wrote created a page instead of a post on Wednesday night. […]

by Jon Swanson

Ellen left.

Yesterday we talked about Ellen. Wednesday afternoon we went to check on her. I’d asked her to stop by and she didn’t come. In the morning, I had made a couple calls for help. I had figured out some places for her to call. I asked friends to ask God to give me wisdom because […]

by Jon Swanson

helping ellen.

I walked toward the front door of the church building, carrying a cup of Starbucks, my Chrome laptop, and my Kindle. Sitting inside, I knew, was Ellen. She’s a woman who didn’t have a job, a house, a car, parents, family, or a place to stay. She ended up at our church because she had […]

by Jon Swanson

Unless I am wrong

I am acutely aware of expectations, even those that do not exist. I have lived much of my life as a pleaser. To avoid conflict, I have appeased, placated, avoided and feared. And I am increasingly aware of the dangers of living according to the standards and expectations and boundaries of others. “How we used […]