February 2012 – Page 3 – 300 words a day

Saturday reflection: online. character.

This weekend in Michigan, a bunch of high school students who are leaders at their churches are spending time talking about faith and culture and leadership. The conference is called Converge2101. I was asked to create a video about online character. We decided to share it with you, too.

by Jon Swanson

again and again

You know people who tell the same stories over and over? The people who come to family reunions and tell the old stories about how Uncle Ed could always get lost walking home, because he was reading while he walked. The people who stand come to the church potlucks and remind you that Sister Hazel’s […]

by Jon Swanson

Peace for Thursday.

On Thursdays we don’t need big challenging thoughts. We need quiet reminders. We need to remember what we believed on Sunday, what we promised on Monday, what we lost track of on Tuesday. We need to sit for a moment, just a moment, and shake off the chaos that was Wednesday and rest. We can’t […]

by Jon Swanson

That reminds me. Of a story.

(This was first posted May 22, 2009) Stories take words and breaths and turn them into walls our egos crash into, and overstuffed chairs our souls rest in, and kitchen chairs where our hearts linger over coffee and donuts. Stories teach best when they take the familiar to illustrate the unfamiliar. If your grandfather sat […]

by Jon Swanson

A love letter.

Paul was in jail. It didn’t bother him much. It was part of the job. When you teach things that challenge the religious and political structures, you can expect to be in jail. What bothered him more was that a group of good friends, supportive friends, knew that he was in jail. They wondered about […]