Today’s Reflection In taking flesh, God opened wide to time, to the effects of its passing, to the weight of chronology. Yet this God dwells also beyond time. It is a mystery, this simultaneous entering and shedding that God does with time. —Jan L. Richardson, In the Sanctuary of Women: A Companion for Reflection and Prayer (Upper Room Books, 2010) Today’s Question How does God’s relationship to time shape your perspective? Today’s Scripture But do not ignore this one fact, b

Today’s Reflection [Eve’s story] is a story of original hunger. It invites us to trace the lines of our longings and where they have led us. It calls us to reckon with the ways we have hidden ourselves from the Holy. —Jan L. Richardson, In the Sanctuary of Women: A Companion for Reflection and Prayer (Upper Room Books, 2010) Today’s Question When you trace the lines of your longings, where do they lead? Today’s Scripture Take delight in the LORD,and he will give you the desir

Today’s Reflection Grief is real and also held in God’s mystery. Yet love is the greatest mystery in our amazing universe. It is given to us as a way to participate in life. It is the root and cause and completion of all things in God. —Roberta C. Bondi, Wild Things: Poems of Grief and Love, Loss and Gratitude (Upper Room Books, 2014) Today’s Question How can you embrace the mystery of God’s love today? Today’s Scripture Without question, the mystery of godliness is great: he

Today’s Reflection There is no place not filled with God, nor any person either, and we have done nothing to make this happen. We live in a universe of God’s grace whether we know it or not. —Roberta C. Bondi, Wild Things: Poems of Grief and Love, Loss and Gratitude (Upper Room Books, 2014) Today’s Question What spiritual practice helps you recognize God in all things? Join the conversation. Today’s Scripture And one called to another and said:“Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of

Today’s Reflection I see more now when I pay attention, which I often do not, and I am more overwhelmed by beauty that I now realize has nothing to do with me at all—except as it brings me half-understood messages of God’s goodness. —Roberta C. Bondi, Wild Things: Poems of Grief and Love, Loss and Gratitude (Upper Room Books, 2014) Today’s Question What might God want you to notice today as a message of hope? Today’s Scripture Let your steadfast love, O LORD, be upon us, even

Today’s Reflection Let us only intend to see and hear, and the whole world becomes a book of wisdom. . . . the miseries and errors that we see in other people become so many plain lessons of advice to us. —Edited by Keith Beasley-Topliffe, The Upper Room Spiritual Classics: Writings of William Law (Upper Room Books, 2017) Today’s Question When have you learned a lesson from someone else’s mistakes? When have you learned from their wisdom? Today’s Scripture Wisdom cries out in

Today’s Reflection Those who dare not say an ill-natured word or do an unreasonable thing because they consider God as everywhere present perform a better devotion than those who dare not miss church. —Edited by Keith Beasley-Topliffe, The Upper Room Spiritual Classics: Writings of William Law (Upper Room Books, 2017) Today’s Question Are you aware of how God views your actions as you make them? Does that change how you act? Today’s Scripture “This man went down to his home j

Today’s Reflection Jesus’ act of washing the disciples’ feet exemplifies Jesus as both Lord and servant. Both are central to his identity, and as Jesus’ followers, one way we follow Jesus is as servants to all. —Stephanie B. Dunn, Draw Close: A Creative Companion for Lent (Upper Room Books, 2025) Today’s Question How are you being served? How are you being called to serve? Today’s Scripture [Jesus] got up from supper, took off his outer robe, and tied a towel around himself.

Jesus serving the needs of his disciples Today’s Reflection The measure of our love to God seems in justice to be the measure of our love of every virtue. We are to love and practice it with all our hearts. —Edited by Keith Beasley-Topliffe, The Upper Room Spiritual Classics: Writings of William Law (Upper Room Books, 2017) Today’s Question How is righteousness, or having good virtues, related to your faith in God? Today’s Scripture “I may gain Christ and be found in him, not

Today’s Reflection I am comforted by the everyday things around me, all things wild and beautiful and beyond understanding. I affirm that they are very good, which does not surprise me. . . [Everything] reflects God to us if we pay attention. —Roberta C. Bondi, Wild Things: Poems of Grief and Love, Loss and Gratitude (Upper Room Books, 2014) Today’s Question Where do you see God’s reflection in the everyday things around you? Today’s Scripture God saw everything that he had m

Today’s Reflection At the funeral, people said. . . “Tom, you know your faith will get you through this.” He stopped for a moment, looked at me, and then said, “Roberta, it was not my faith that got me through it. It was the faith of my friends.” —Roberta C. Bondi, Wild Things: Poems of Grief and Love, Loss and Gratitude (Upper Room Books, 2014) Today’s Question When have your friends helped you have faith? Today’s Scripture Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the

Today’s Reflection When I pray for another, I join with God and Christ and the communion of dedicated souls in something that is already operative. . . . [Yet it] seems to be aided by—yes, even to require—my prayer. —Douglas V. Steere, Dimensions of Prayer: Cultivating a Relationship with God (Upper Room Books, 2002) Today’s Question Do you think prayer has the power to change things in this world? Have you ever sensed that a prayer of yours was truly necessary? Today’s Scrip

Today’s Reflection In the presence of this love . . . changes in our lives take place. Is it not a dread of this self-awareness and this change that causes each of us to resist the call to continued prayer? —Douglas V. Steere, Dimensions of Prayer: Cultivating a Relationship with God (Upper Room Books, 2002) Today’s Question What causes you to procrastinate or avoid talking to God? Today’s Scripture But the Lord God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?” He said,

Today’s Reflection I return to the One from whom I came and to whom I belong. For regardless of how self-sufficient I [am] . . . when this body fails, there is then only One who can translate me into another life. —Douglas V. Steere, Dimensions of Prayer: Cultivating a Relationship with God (Upper Room Books, 2002) Today’s Question How do you imagine God will translate you, body and soul, into the next life? Today’s Scripture And the one who was seated on the throne said, “Se

Today’s Reflection We are stardust infused with the very breath of God. God’s creative action permeates our every molecule with the spark of the Divine. —Anne Cumings, My Body Is Good: Giving Up Diet Culture and Embracing Body Positivity for Lent (Upper Room Books, 2022) Today’s Question What is something you can do to love God with your body? Today’s Scripture [Jesus] answered, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and

Today’s Reflection “Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.” I am dust. I am made of earth. In that moment my earthiness, my fleshiness, my body itself became something holy. —Anne Cumings, My Body Is Good: Giving Up Diet Culture and Embracing Body Positivity for Lent (Upper Room Books, 2022) Today’s Question Does it bother you to think about being made of dust and returning to dust? Why or why not? Today’s Scripture You are dust, and to dust you shall retur

April 22 is Earth Day, a time when Christians are encouraged to express their thanks for God’s glorious creation and reaffirm their commitment to holistic creation care. Here is a simple devotional exercise to help you cultivate a spirit of thanksgiving and faithfulness on Earth Day or whatever day you they choose to celebrate. Find a quiet and comfortable place for reading and mediation. Weather permitting, we encourage you to go outside or sit by a window where you can be c

Today’s Reflection In spite of the many attempts of misguided Christians to demonize the body, Christianity is a body-positive faith. We worship a Savior who had a body. And we worship in and through our bodies. —Anne Cumings, My Body Is Good: Giving Up Diet Culture and Embracing Body Positivity for Lent (Upper Room Books, 2022) Today’s Question Why do you think women especially need to hear about body positivity? Join the conversation . Today’s Scripture The voice spoke to

Today’s Reflection The term “body positivity” may be new to you. At its root, body positivity is a social movement that makes this claim: All bodies are good bodies. . . . Body positivity, in this book, is an act of radical self-love. —Anne Cumings, My Body Is Good: Giving Up Diet Culture and Embracing Body Positivity for Lent (Upper Room Books, 2022) Today’s Question Why do you think the second greatest commandment tells us to love our neighbor as we love ourselves? Join th

Today’s Reflection I became aware that there is no way for me to be a Christian without my body. It was my body that moved through that sanctuary, my body that sang the longing, penitential hymns, and my body that watched as candles flickered on the altar table. —Anne Cumings, My Body Is Good: Giving Up Diet Culture and Embracing Body Positivity for Lent (Upper Room Books, 2022) Today’s Question Why do you think so many of the church’s rituals involve bodily gestures such as