January 2015 – Page 4 – 300 words a day

Lord, have mercy.

(This is a reprint of a post from November 21, 2007. Though it speaks of Thanksgiving time, it seemed appropriate for the end of the first full week of 2015.) Lord have mercy. That’s what kyrie eleison means. It’s Latin. I heard it about 30 times last Sunday afternoon. Not because someone was upset (“Lor’ have mercy”) […]

by Jon Swanson

Praying with Jonah

We’re listening to a series of sermons from the book of Jonah. On Sunday, we looked at chapter two. The chapter is mostly a prayer which starts after Jonah is in the fish. There are many people who have said many things about this story. One thread of conversations is about whether this happened, how […]

by Jon Swanson

Spiritual training: distraction and the unwritten note.

I was shoveling and writing. The kind of writing you do in your head when your body is working steady but not too hard. And when you are not thrilled with the work you are doing. I was writing a note to a couple friends. I wanted to challenge themselves to do something bold, something […]

by Jon Swanson

Spiritual training: an example of planning.

Last week, I talked about spiritual training plans (picking one thing, models and pieces, and training plans.) I received the following email describing how a friend walked through developing a plan. I was stunned. It’s a fabulous example of laying out a plan. I asked for permission to share it with you. +++ I took this through […]

by Jon Swanson

Ezra’s 3 words.

Ezra the scribe sat at the low wooden desk and pulled the scrap of papyrus toward him. It was going to be a long day in Babylonia. Few people knew how to read or write. It fell to him to write letters, to copy orders, to read the records, both for Persians and Jews. He […]