prayer – 300 words a day

Consider a reverse prayer list.

A reverse bucket list. The idea has been around for awhile. Rather than making a list of the things you want to do before you die, the idea is to make a list of the things that you have already done. I’m not a bucket list fan, but I like the idea. For those of […]

by Jon Swanson

Honest assessment of impending struggle.

Jesus said, “Now, my heart is troubled. And what shall I say, ‘Father save me from this hour?’” You know the feeling? It was a couple days before Good Friday. As best as I can tell, this is part of the last speech that Jesus gives, the end of his public teaching. In the next […]

by Jon Swanson

A rock and a hard place

Eddie worked at a hospital. He was a chaplain. He could have worked anywhere, he could have done anything, he could have been anyone that spends working hours caring for the hearts of others, walking with the burdens of others. Pastors, counselors, teachers, bus drivers. The parents who are up in the middle of the […]

by Jon Swanson

learning while saying a little prayer.

“As a pastor I was charged with, among other things, teaching people to pray, helping them to give voice to the entire experience of being human, and to do it both honestly and thoroughly.” That’s what Eugene Peterson wrote. Give people a sense of what is possible and acceptable and available. Give them a sense […]

by Jon Swanson

On laughing and praying.

I was praying with a friend for that friend. I was, as I often do, just talking, asking God for what seemed to be a response to the concern on my friend’s heart. And then, as I sometimes do, I just started laughing. People who know me know that this is one of my odd […]