April 2013 – Page 4 – 300 words a day

Learning how to be.

A friend wrote me an email about a teaching project she’s working on. “A number of times,” she said, ” you have written about ‘who do you want to be’ vs. ‘what do you want to do’. And the more planning I put into this, the more I want this to be the core of […]

by Jon Swanson

Psalm 19, again and again

I’m reading Psalm 19 every Monday this year. It’s an interesting discipline, to study the same text fresh every week. Here’s what I saw last week. +++ A five-part process of clarifying my perspective. 1. Reflect on God’s work in and of creation. (19:1-6) I suppose that we can think of the heavens as messages […]

by Paul Merrill

The power of confrontation

A friend called me to account. My attitudes were hurting them enough that they even said our friendship was in jeopardy. I had no idea that my attitudes and words had been so offensive. I am so glad they told me! We must not be afraid to confront the people in our lives. It took […]

by Jon Swanson

April, translations, Hope, time mortgages, and rules.

It’s been awhile since I did a brain dump post. Intentionally, I mean. 1. We’re done with the first quarter of 2013. When the end of the first quarter of the year is Easter Sunday, it means the second quarter starts with a bang. Or with a feeling of fatigue. It’s a great time to […]

by Jon Swanson

Relaxing into new routines.

If we want our Lenten journey to make a difference, we need to relax into the routines. We need to learn to take our actions from “days in a row” to “weeks in a row” to “months in a row” to “seasons in a row.” Here’s what I mean: If you have talked with God […]