“Our task: to bend history toward justice. Justice for all people: safety, peace, hope. The world waits beneath the shadows to see if we can succeed. Pray for Spirit’s presence, pray for the Ancestors to help us, and then bend your shoulder toward the truth and push with all your strength to balance the great wheels of creation.”—Steven Charleston
Verse of the day
Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of injustice, to undo the straps of yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke?
– Isaiah 58:6
Voice of the day
If you want to be a friend of God — and God needs all the friends that God can get in these times — then you’ll have to work for a better world.
– Michael Woolf, “In Difficult Times, We Find Out What Kind of Christians We Are”
Prayer of the day
God, make us true friends of yours by guiding us to free the oppressed, break every yoke of injustice, and work with love and courage for a better world.
The man who is dominated by what I have called the “social image” is one who allows himself to see and to approve in himself only that which his society prescribes as beneficial and praiseworthy in its members. As a corollary he sees and disapproves (usually in others) mostly what his society disapproves. And yet he congratulates himself on “thinking for himself.” In reality, this is only a game that he plays in his own mind—the game of substituting the words, slogans and concepts he has received from society, for genuine experiences of his own. Or rather—the slogans of society are felt to rise up within him as if they were his own, “spontaneous experience.” — Disputed Questions, p. 170
“One does not make wars less likely by formulating rules of warfare. War cannot be humanized. It can only be abolished.”—Albert Einstein
Verse of the day
Two are better than one because they have a good reward for their toil. For if they fall, one will lift up the other, but woe to one who is alone and falls and does not have another to help.
– Ecclesiastes 4:9–10
Voice of the day
My humanity is bound up in yours, for we can only be human together.
– Desmond Tutu
Prayer of the day
God, remind us that our lives are bound together, and teach us to lift one another up in love, for it is only together that we become fully human.
The spiritual journey is essentially different from engaging in hero worship or joining a therapeutic movement. These forms of following are typically centered on “me.” In hero worship, we may be looking for a vicarious self by losing our identity in that of the hero. In many therapeutic movements, we may be searching for inner harmony or healing. When Jesus says, “Follow me,” he is calling us to let go of “me” and to gradually say, “You, Lord, are the one.” Jesus calls us to leave our “me” world, trusting that being at home in God we will discover who we truly are.
Sometimes we have to “step over” our anger, our jealousy, or our feelings of rejection and move on. The temptation is to get stuck in our negative emotions, poking around in them as if we belong there. Then we become the “offended one,” the “forgotten one,” or the “discarded one.” Yes, we can get attached to these negative identities and even take morbid pleasure in them. It might be good to have a look at these dark feelings and explore where they come from, but there comes a moment to step over them, leave them behind, and travel on.
When we contemplate creation rather than manipulating it, we are able to see nature as a gift of God to be cherished and cared for. When we receive in our hearts with gratitude and awe what God has created, we see nature as it truly is – a transcendent reality that asks for reverence and respect. Then it becomes transparent, and life starts to speak a new language, revealing to us the goodness and beauty of God. The plants and animals with whom we live teach us about birth, growth, maturation, and death, about the need for gentle care, and especially about the importance of patience and hope.
Verse of the day
If a brother or sister is naked and lacks daily food and one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and eat your fill,” and yet you do not supply their bodily needs, what is the good of that? So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead.
– James 2:15-17
Voice of the day
When the church fails to respond to the literal thirst of our neighbors, it is not just a moral lapse — it is a spiritual crisis.
– Mae Elise Cannon and Ben Norquist, “Lord, When Did We See You Thirsty in Gaza?”
Prayer of the day
God, we lift up the people of Gaza to you, as many endure extreme thirst and hunger caused by human injustice; give us the courage to speak out and respond with compassion and action to their suffering.
“We are not destined to conquer one another by violence and hatred; we are destined to evolve our capacity to care for and protect all living beings.”—Michael N. Nagler, Stephanie N. Van Hook, Nonviolence Daily 365 Days of Inspiration from Gandhi (pg. 329)
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