following – Page 5 – 300 words a day

be something useful

Salt and light. Jesus talks about being salt and light. Salt seasons. It preserves. It melts ice. It helps make homemade ice cream. It corrodes paint. It makes water undrinkable. It makes the same water support life. It is simple. It is natural. It is found in lots of locations, from deep underground to deep […]

by Jon Swanson

Dear friend

You want to follow God. You are feeling like you have nothing to offer, like you are at a party where everyone else brings cool gifts and you are still waiting for your last paycheck and so have nothing. You think about how you have done wrong and how often you have messed up, and […]

by Jon Swanson

standing on the edge, nervously

Matthew is, according to some scholars, broken into five distinct sections, in addition to an introduction and a conclusion. Each of the five major sections has an historical narrative and a discourse by Jesus. The first narrative section ends at the end of chapter 4. The discourse starts with chapter 5 and runs through chapter […]

by Jon Swanson

Watching the swimmers

[Matthew 3:5-12] Some people are really bad swimmers. That’s why they take lessons. They walk up to the registration desk at the YMCA and they say, “I can’t swim. I don’t know how to do a freestyle.” And the guy at the desk says, “You’ll have to get wet.” And they say, “great.” And they […]

by Jon Swanson

urgent

(Matthew 2:13-23) John Kotter discovered that even when organizations have plans to make changes that will help them, about 70% don’t do anything. About 10% organizations with plans experience great success. The difference between the 70% and the 10%? A sense of urgency. If change doesn’t happen, the 10% believes, their organization will suffer. The […]