Forward Day By Day – May 1, 2020

Friday, May 1, 2020

We Christians are not always kind to one another. And when we are in the trenches, knee-deep in a capital campaign or mud up to our shoulders in program shifts or cultural change, we are often not our best selves. Somehow the snide comments and sharp elbows land a...

Forward Day By Day – April 30, 2020

Thursday, April 30, 2020

From the Archives: December 30, 1996“What is original sin?” the twelve-year-old asked her grandfather. He replied, “It is something we all have in common. It is one of the things that hold us together.” ….(View this reading and more resources for prayer at Daily...

Forward Day By Day – April 29, 2020

Wednesday, April 29, 2020

I hung on a cross next to his. Me, a criminal; him, an innocent man…and so much more. My punishment was deserved; his was not. He was hanging there, pierced by nails and thorns, pierced by the unseen wound of disbelief. But he forgave them…and me. The la….(View...

Forward Day By Day – April 28, 2020

Tuesday, April 28, 2020

I walk across the meadow into my sanctuary in the woods until I find the glade of ancient trees that rise and spread like a cathedral. Birds strike up a chorus, and I feel a mighty “Hallelujah!” welling up inside me. Looking up between the tops of the t….(View...

Forward Day By Day – April 27, 2020

Monday, April 27, 2020

Close your eyes for a minute and look at John the Baptist. A single dark fin cutting through the ocean of sand and scrub brush, sleepless eyes fixed on the horizon like a desert shark. Between bursts of angry shouting, he speaks about a messianic tide that will lift...

Forward Day By Day – April 26, 2020

Sunday, April 26, 2020

I will always think of the road to Emmaus as the freeway to every corner of the universe. At the moment when Jesus traveled down its dusty turnings, there was no limit to where it could go. All the barriers and barricades are gone; the way to eternity is open....

Forward Day By Day – April 25, 2020

Saturday, April 25, 2020

Weeds are paved over because they aren’t flowers—worthless because they lack blooms. Yet even the weeds feel the electricity of God’s love in their roots and so believe their way by faith up through the cracks in the sidewalk. Weeds push up toward the ….(View...

Forward Day By Day – April 24, 2020

Friday, April 24, 2020

I await the Spirit of truth, remembering everything I can of what Jesus said to me. I sit, watching and waiting on this hillside. I see the sky. I see the earth and the sun and moon, rivers and raindrops, fields ripe with holy harvests. I remember Jesus...

Forward Day By Day – April 23, 2020

Thursday, April 23, 2020

From the Archives: February 12, 2014I’m not much, but I’m all I think about. So many decisions each day and most, if not all, of them are centered on self. Each of us has a set of scales constantly weighing the pros and co….(View this reading and more resources...

Forward Day By Day – April 22, 2020

Wednesday, April 22, 2020

I walk into the woods late one winter afternoon. Evening’s great sponge wrings out daylight quicker than I anticipate. Standing in a small clearing where the sun has just gone down, I hear the voice of a single star speaking softly. It is quite small, not...

Forward Day By Day – April 21, 2020

Tuesday, April 21, 2020

Returning to the grave in which we bury the fear of losing love, we discover that even the dirt has risen. We dig furiously with our prayers, throwing shovels full of devout and faithful words in every direction. Only when all our words are gone, and our...

Forward Day By Day – April 20, 2020

Monday, April 20, 2020

If I could—and what a leap of faith—I would see sherbet in the sky and children running along the edge of their lives carrying bowls and spoons to taste heaven’s sweet love, sand kicking up behind their heels like exclamation marks. Love would have no ….(View...

Forward Day By Day – April 19, 2020

Sunday, April 19, 2020

Imagine your bones imagining themselves. Imagine them imagining flesh and blood; praying for eyes and ears, lips and a tongue, a voice, a song. And a soul. Imagine your bones having a dream and then waking up alive in your skin and discovering, at that moment, that...

Forward Day By Day – April 18, 2020

Saturday, April 18, 2020

My valleys of shadow recall nothing the darkness ever told me to believe. I have finally accepted the topography of my own soul, the beautiful meadows and rolling foothills of love and grace that Jesus shared. That is what I am doing on this morning, warming myself in...

Forward Day By Day – April 17, 2020

Friday, April 17, 2020

Imagine Jesus coming to breakfast. A star falling through the roof and into your bowl of cereal, splattering milk on your face, and there among the cornflakes, waiting for your spoon, the kingdom of heaven comes near. Maybe you’ve been a fisher of men...