Forward Day By Day – August 22, 2020

Something like scales fall from our eyes when we study neuroscience. So much of what can be perceived as choice is impulse. Most people react instead of responding.More scales fall from our eyes when we study history. Sometimes hardships lead to liberation. Who are we...

Forward Day By Day – August 21, 2020

My first silent retreat was at a mountain hermitage. I settled into my home away from home, happily showing reverence to the food, fork, chair, and sunset. I listened to the sounds my mouth made when I chewed and considered the flavors on my tongue and in the air.I...

Forward Day By Day – August 20, 2020

From the Archives: March 3, 1951It is strange how blind we can be to the consequences of sin and how alert to the imagined consequences of obedience. We most often think we can beat the certain consequences of sin, but we never quite see how….(View this reading...

Forward Day By Day – August 19, 2020

Prudence is not often born of abundance. Or is it? Jesus doesn’t travel with stockpiles of food. He has sandals and a robe, at the least. He’s not identified by his material possessions. I have never considered Jesus lacking, though. He oozes abundance. ….(View...

Forward Day By Day – August 18, 2020

Attention: Beloved SheepFrom: IsraelRe: Self careFellows of The Flock,I’m wrestling with something. Turns out it’s me…..(View this reading and more resources for prayer at Daily Prayer: A resource of Forward Movement.) This post appeared here first: Forward Day...

Forward Day By Day – August 17, 2020

When I am hungry, angry, lonely, or tired, my coping mechanisms snap to attention like mice when the cat is gone. I sense judgment from the humans around me, and experience urges me to justify behaviors or explain myself. My response is often out of proportion to the...

Forward Day By Day – August 16, 2020

Israel is the new name given Jacob after his wrestling match at Peniel, after he “has seen God face to face.” Studying the etymology of the name is its own wrestling match. Who is the subject? Go a little further in the story, and we see that Israel’s children become...

Forward Day By Day – August 15, 2020

I love trying on different understandings of God. I once heard someone describe walking outside in the imagined company of all the great thinkers of history, loved ones here and gone, wisdom known and unknown, as time spent with her higher power.Recently, I...

Forward Day By Day – August 14, 2020

I wish this shocked me more. Infanticide, genocide, children used to build economies and satisfy urges. This behavior isn’t limited to the past: We still commit atrocities against children of all ages.How did humankind arrive at such a point? I suppose it started with...

Forward Day By Day – August 13, 2020

From the Archives: January 27, 1951What a magnificent declaration of faith this is! Saint Paul had ample opportunity for knowing the danger of things coming in between the soul and God, and it is doubtless out of his own experience that he writes…..(View this...