300 words a day

Having an authority.

A couple years ago, I started writing through Mark. At least that’s what I said I was going to do. When I look back, there are 39 posts in the series, which wandered and then eventually faded away in May. There was a new grandson that year (Happy Birthday today, Ben), and a big research […]

by Jon Swanson

On a week of positivity.

I am not a positive person. At least I don’t think of myself that way. I’m more pragmatic. Things happen. We respond. And always looking on the bright side when you are seeing people in hard times can be really annoying. So having to spend a week being positive, more accurately, testing positive, feels counter […]

by Jon Swanson

A prayer for the third Sunday after Epiphany

God. We have become catastrophic people. Each night the news opens with “late-breaking” headlines.Each morning our social media offers us warnings and predictions.Each conversation begins with, “Did you hear?” We are fearful and outraged.We are anxious and numb.We are overwhelmed and, I confess, underestimate what your presence might mean to us. When we read the […]

by Jon Swanson

But you. What do you say?

In the church calendar, the weeks between Epiphany, January 6, and Ash Wednesday (February 14 in 2024) are identified with the preposition, “after”. Unlike Lent (in) and Advent and Easter (of), these are the weeks after an event. In Epiphany: The Season of Glory, Fleming Rutledge notes that the lectionary for this season “is remarkably […]

by Jon Swanson

Listening in the middle of the night.

The other night, I couldn’t fall asleep. This doesn’t happen. I fall asleep, often before I can finish praying through my nightly prayer. But this time, I was awake. Eventually, I went downstairs to the sofa and covered up. I listened to the house creak, I listened to the boiler, I listened to my breathing. […]