a great work – Page 2 – 300 words a day

“A Great Work” is not a how-to manual. Whew.

Q: Did anything give you chills when writing A Great Work? That’s a really odd question. Except that I have an answer. I was looking at chapter 8 of the book of Nehemiah. It’s the one where Ezra starts reading the book of the Law, and the Levites start translating it, and everyone starts weeping, […]

by Jon Swanson

The moment Nehemiah became more than lists.

Q: What captivated you about the book of Nehemiah? The more I slowed down and looked at the text to see what was going on, the more excited I got about everything I had missed by skimming. Probably the first really exciting moment, the one that showed me that other people could get excited about […]

by Jon Swanson

A glimpse of Nehemiah’s story

“You need to understand how I grew up,” Nehemiah said. “You know how you heard stories from your mom about how your great-grandfather left Sweden and left his wife and son for a decade while he went to Wisconsin to make a new life? You remember how she wanted you to have a sense of […]

by Jon Swanson

Nehemiah talks about focus

This is from my weekly enewsletter about Nehemiah called “A Great Work“. Nehemiah is talking here: “What you are reading is a God-driven case study of how we built the wall first and then the nation. What you are reading leaves out all the parts about my momentary doubts, my hesitation before plunging in. Because […]