Forward Day By Day – August 13, 2018

Monday, August 13, 2018

When I was in my teens, I developed a painful and embarrassing skin infection that eventually engulfed my entire face. One day I woke up with what seemed like badly chapped lips, and then my entire face was covered in ugly sores. I had to drop out of school for a...

Forward Day By Day – August 12, 2018

Sunday, August 12, 2018

From both personal and professional experiences, I can testify that grief is one of the core struggles of being human. Losing someone we love breaks us in unique and painful ways. Broken was how I felt when my father died, and broken is how many of my clients have...

Forward Day By Day – August 11, 2018

Saturday, August 11, 2018

Sometime in 1978, Bob Dylan picked up a silver cross that had been tossed on stage during a concert. This small act eventually led Dylan to a very public conversion to Christianity—and a couple of albums with decidedly gospel-driven themes.Dylan seemed to grasp that...

Forward Day By Day – August 10, 2018

Friday, August 10, 2018

While I like to consider myself an educated and sophisticated Christian, I’ve noticed something about my Christian role models: They are ordinary people living extraordinary lives.Take Ernie, who is in his eighties. No one would blame him for slipping into a quiet...

Forward Day By Day – August 9, 2018

Thursday, August 9, 2018

When I was growing up in the early 1980s, many parent-types were concerned about the influence rock musician Prince was having on teenagers. With his provocative clothing and the explicit lyrics of his songs, people asked if anything good could come out of this...

Forward Day By Day – August 8, 2018

Wednesday, August 8, 2018

What do you think is the greatest gift you’ll leave behind? Will you leave a legacy of children, financial gifts that will bless others, or works or ideas that will shape future generations? Peter reminds the crowd that they are indeed inheritors of great blessings...

Forward Day By Day – August 7, 2018

Tuesday, August 7, 2018

Whenever I do something, I try to ask myself: “How do I want to change the world?” In writing today’s reflection, I want you to fully embrace the power you have through Jesus Christ.For many years, I had a hard time with the miracles in the Bible. The well-educated...

Loving the Children

Tuesday, August 7, 2018

Loving someone else’s children may be one of the greatest gifts of the church.   You know those people.   The people who smile at your child whenever they see them. Those people who ask about your child and what they like to do and how they’re sleeping....

Forward Day By Day – August 6, 2018

Monday, August 6, 2018

In today’s reading, Peter writes that the Lord has revealed the knowledge of his forthcoming death to him. I read Peter’s knowledge of his coming death as one of the greatest of God’s many, many mercies.The Ash Wednesday liturgy is one of my favorite Christian...

Transfiguration and the Word

Monday, August 6, 2018

What a blessed treasury of riches. It is the feast of the Transfiguration. If it were not, the daily Gospel reading is from John starting at Chapter 1, Verse 1. “In the beginning was the Word.”  And the summary of all the Christology needed for salvation, all the rest...

Forward Day By Day – August 5, 2018

Sunday, August 5, 2018

Today’s psalm describes chronic sin, which is something that I think most people of faith struggle against (and perhaps with). We want to believe that being a person of faith means we live mostly sin-free lives. We lie to ourselves that our sins are always minor and...

Remember When…

Sunday, August 5, 2018

Exodus 16:2-4, 9-15 If you’ve spent five minutes on Facebook you’ve probably seen a meme that begins with, “Remember when…” or maybe it was, “Are you old enough to remember when…” and then it goes on to extol the virtues of something or another, often execrating young...

Forward Day By Day – August 4, 2018

Saturday, August 4, 2018

In today’s reading from Matthew, the guards posted to watch Jesus’ tomb go to the chief priests and report the resurrection. The chief priests, threatened and probably scared by this knowledge, pay the guards a bribe to say that Jesus’ disciples stole his body.I have...

Moneychanging

Saturday, August 4, 2018

While they were going, some of the guard went into the city and told the chief priests everything that had happened. After the priests* had assembled with the elders, they devised a plan to give a large sum of money to the soldiers, telling them, ‘You must say, “His...

Forward Day By Day – August 3, 2018

Friday, August 3, 2018

I’ve worked as a psychotherapist for many years, so I think I’ve become something of an authority regarding insults and slights. Words do indeed hurt people.Many people have sat with me over the years and recounted words spoken years and years ago that still hurt....