sabbath – 300 words a day

Aching souls don’t come just from being on our feet.

Many people I know are tired. Others are exhausted. Some are stressed. A few are overwhelmed. Several are at the end of their rope. A bunch are weary, a handful are wiped out. You may be one of those people. Part of the problem can be blamed on the International Olympic Committee who chose London […]

by Jon Swanson

Saturday reflection: Lent 2012

The second most visited post on this blog is one I wrote about Lent in 2011: 33 things to give up for Lent. All year long people have come to this post by searching for Lent. Which is interesting, since Lent is a period of forty days (plus 6 Sundays) between Ash Wednesday and Easter. […]

by Jon Swanson

the day after

I teach every week in three settings, but I only preach a couple of times a year. Yesterday I stitched together posts about John 4, explored ideas with our Saturday night small group, and preached. I’m grateful for the responses, grateful for what I learned while studying. I don’t want to talk about the message […]

by Jon Swanson

Weakened

Or should it say weekend? Some of us get to Saturday morning, full of energy, full of projects, full of passion to “get something done.” The rest of us get to Saturday morning dragging. We have been busy all week. We are struggling with a list of activities that got longer during the week, rather […]

by Jon Swanson

looking for a reason

Sometimes you have conversations that are conversations. Sometimes questions are asked for the purpose of finding out the answer. “How is it with your soul?” is a question seeking an answer, trying to help someone else reflect. “What is the question you don’t want me to ask?” is a question about trust, about helping someone […]