March 2009 – Page 3 – 300 words a day

it is easy to forget

We had a conversation tonight about a difficult book. There were 6 of us, with different shades of opinion about the book. More accurately, there were 5 of us with different shades and one with a completely different color. I was a good debater. I thought quickly about a variety of texts. I found myself […]

by Jon Swanson

wanna do something about it?

All the rules. All the warnings. All the cautionary tales. All the words. Everything that his audience had been learning since birth, Jesus said, could be summed up in one phrase. We call it the golden rule. We make it a wall plaque. We teach it to little children to train them to share. So […]

by Jon Swanson

just like real people

Yesterday I talked about a 2-year-old to illustrate something about prayer. “But I’m not a 2-year-old,” we say. “And besides, comparing people to God isn’t appropriate anyway.” Really? Are you sure? Because that’s exactly what Jesus does to help us understand how God listens to us. He’s talking to the crowd on the hillside. He’s […]

by Jon Swanson

Waiting is hard

We all have stories about God not answering our prayer. We asked for help on the test. We failed. We asked for healing for the child. She died. We asked “why?” We didn’t hear anything. Given our experience, many of us read these words that Jesus said and we cringe: “Ask and it will be […]

by Jon Swanson

on hogs and dogs

As much as we work to understand and explain what Jesus said, we need to be honest: sometimes he wasn’t clear. At times it was purposeful. He even says that he is speaking obscurely at times. However, in the middle of a fairly clear sermon, when he seems to be trying to be clear, he […]