formation – Page 4 – 300 words a day

A moment of clarity.

My academic roots are in communication. I’ve spent years trying to clarify and illustrate and explain and mediate. At my best, I’m only partially successful. Of course, most of us aren’t much better. The biblical account traces this confusion back to a place known as Babel. Humans were ignoring God’s direction to spread out. They […]

by Jon Swanson

You may be moved.

There are times when I watch something or read something or hear something that makes me stop, makes me weep. This video brings together four people whose relationship accomplished that stopping. I’ve been shaped by Eugene Peterson for thirty years. I read A Long Obedience in the Same Direction when I was teaching speech in […]

by Jon Swanson

Getting started with spiritual growth

Last week, I talked about defining spiritual formation. I suggested that we could say Spiritual formation happens when a community holds beliefs about what it means to be spiritually healthy that they use to develop and implement a process intended to foster those beliefs and that spiritual health in others. A friend wanted some help […]

by Jon Swanson

How do I start living like Jesus?

The simplest answer is to take a time machine and travel back and start following Jesus around. That’s how the first disciples learned. Peter and James and John. Mary Magdalene. A bunch of other people. They went where Jesus went. They ate what Jesus ate. They wore what Jesus wore. They listened to what Jesus […]

by Jon Swanson

Obliged. Thank you.

I talked with some junior high and high school students the other night about some of the ways that we are different. I spent some time talking about Gretchen Rubin’s discussion of the different ways we respond to expectations (See Expectations and Lent for more discussion). I told them that I’m a person who can meet the expectations […]