May 2010 – Page 3 – 300 words a day

Sometimes you just sit and listen.

My boss was very active. He handed me lots of things to work on, lots of projects to research. And I enjoyed it. It was stretching. It was fun. We were sitting in his office one afternoon, talking. I already had a long list of next steps in front of me. I was ready to […]

by Jon Swanson

You mean I haven’t talked about that before?

I really wasn’t planning to plunge into a series on prayer. Next week I’m teaching about prayer at a denominational conference. To help me think, I went to the group I teach on Sunday mornings and began exploring this question: What does it mean that so many people end prayers with some version of “In […]

by Jon Swanson

But this doesn’t look like a place for prayer

I’ve been talking about the geography of prayer the past two days. I didn’t tell you that’s what I was doing. Instead, I talked about two chairs and two mountains, images of where God is when we’re talking with him (or them). But where are we supposed to be standing or sitting or kneeling or […]

by Jon Swanson

Two mountains, one inviting.

Consider two mountains. One is volcanic. Terrifyingly so. There is a little sign at the base: “touch and die.” Some people want to approach it for the adrenaline rush, the fear factor. A crowd gathers around that mountain. There is something compelling about complaining about the fear. There is something comforting about being banned. We […]

by Jon Swanson

Two chairs, leaning together

My parents have two chairs in the living room. One is Dad’s. One is Mom’s. It is impossible to walk into the condo and find them both just sitting. Sometimes, however, if you are around the house enough, if you are part of the family, she sits down. And then you find the two of […]