Today’s Reflection Our identification with this God implies a risk. . . . We open our baskets and share the bread and the fish; we open our homes and welcome the stranger; we open our table to welcome all who hunger and thirst for justice and righteousness. —Kenneth H. Carter Jr., A Beginner’s Guide to Practicing Scriptural Imagination (Upper Room Books, 2020) Today’s Question What risk might God be inviting you to take for the sake of others? Join the conversation . Today’s

Today’s Reflection The Bible doesn’t tell us that Mary is the first, the only one, considered. . . . All we know for sure is that Mary is the one who agrees—and that only after voicing her question and getting an answer. —Mary Lou Redding, While We Wait: Living the Questions of Advent (Upper Room Books, 2002) Today’s Question What do you suppose Mary’s life was like in the days and months following her encounter with the angel Gabriel? Join the conversation . Today’s Scriptu

Today’s Reflection We have allowed our spiritual lives to become isolated from the body of Christ that sustains it, and we have become anemic in our response to the great challenges of the world. The Table is a reminder of our human need for communion with God and with one another. —Kenneth H. Carter Jr., A Beginner’s Guide to Practicing Scriptural Imagination (Upper Room Books, 2020) Today’s Question What helps you recognize your need for communion with God and your calling

Today’s Reflection The Bible reveal[s] a hope worth risking for, hope that pulls people from the present into the future. This hope spills out from one person’s life into the lives of others and changes everything. Biblical hope is a powerful force for change. —Mary Lou Redding, While We Wait: Living the Questions of Advent (Upper Room Books, 2002) Today’s Question What might happen if you lived with expectation that God will show up in the midst of your daily activities? Jo

Today’s Reflection To be holy in the Wesleyan tradition is to love God and our neighbor. And holiness and maturity are generative. Aside from anything else in life, this is the calling of an adult, a leader, a Christian: to be generative. —Kenneth H. Carter Jr., A Beginner’s Guide to Practicing Scriptural Imagination (Upper Room Books, 2020) Today’s Question How is God calling you to be generative? Join the conversation . Today’s Scripture Other seeds fell on good soil and b

Today’s Reflection We remain connected to the vine because that is the way we bear fruit. And here, the inward spiritual grace becomes an outward and visible sign. The natural consequence of a healthy root taking in nutrients is that it produces something wonderful. It bears fruit. —Kenneth H. Carter Jr., A Beginner’s Guide to Practicing Scriptural Imagination (Upper Room Books, 2020) Today’s Question Where is connection to God producing fruit in your life? Join the conversa

Today’s Reflection I want us to think about love as communion, as the experience of community, as Jesus reaching out to people through people. If God is love, then God’s people make God’s love visible. —Kenneth H. Carter Jr., A Beginner’s Guide to Practicing Scriptural Imagination (Upper Room Books, 2020) Today’s Question As you experience God’s love, how can you make that love visible to other people? Join the conversation . Today’s Scripture This is my commandment, that yo

Today’s Reflection There is a human temptation to keep God at a distance. And yet, to be a Christian is to admit that we need a Savior; it is to say, “I cannot do this on my own.” —Kenneth H. Carter Jr., A Beginner’s Guide to Practicing Scriptural Imagination (Upper Room Books, 2020) Today’s Question In what situation do you need to ask God for help today? Join the conversation . Today’s Scripture He said to me, “My grace is enough for you, because power is made perfect in w

Today’s Reflection Quiet can feel . . . hollow. Or the quiet’s not quiet, with so much racket in my head. Can you remember that God is in there in the hollow place? And that God can quiet the racket? —James C. Howell, And His Name Shall Be Called: An Advent Devotional (Upper Room Books, 2025) Today’s Question In what way do you feel hollow inside? Can you start to sense God working, even in that hollow place? Join the conversation . Today’s Scripture For thus said the Lord G

Today’s Reflection The more I can strip away my false self and get to the tender heart of true self, the more hospitable a place I create for God to dwell within me as I dwell within God. —Marsha Crockett, Sacred Conversation: Exploring the Seven Gifts of Spiritual Direction (Upper Room Books, 2022) Today’s Question Where have you felt a sense of belonging? Join the conversation . Today’s Scripture Welcome one another, therefore, just as Christ has welcomed you, for the glor

Today’s Reflection Meditation turns something over and over in the mind until it sinks down to feed the soul. . . . It takes what crosses our path and considers something more, something that speaks to our inner being. —Marsha Crockett, Sacred Conversation: Exploring the Seven Gifts of Spiritual Direction (Upper Room Books, 2022) Today’s Question How has meditation shaped your life with God? Join the conversation . Today’s Scripture Those of steadfast mind you keep in peace—

Today’s Reflection Being silent is different from being silenced. I have come to realize that silence has its own voice. It is a voice of strength and confidence, contentment and peace, trust and surrender. —Marsha Crockett, Sacred Conversation: Exploring the Seven Gifts of Spiritual Direction (Upper Room Books, 2022) Today’s Question How has your time of silence spoken to you powerfully? Join the conversation . Today’s Scripture For God alone my soul waits in silence,for my

Today’s Reflection God, not wishing to be feared, did not come as a titanic warrior, but as a vulnerable child. You can only love a child, You don’t flex your muscles to defeat a child. Love is vulnerability. Love is risky. —James C. Howell, And His Name Shall Be Called: An Advent Devotional (Upper Room Books, 2025) Today’s Question Why is birth so risky for God? What does it mean to you that God takes this risk for your sake? Join the conversation . Today’s Scripture For a

Today’s Reflection The hidden hope in the baby was in the best nickname ever: Immanuel, God with us, so bold, so true, so defiant in the face of darkness and terror. —James C. Howell, And His Name Shall Be Called: An Advent Devotional (Upper Room Books, 2025) Today’s Question How does God’s presence with you make you bold in the face of darkness and terror? Join the conversation . Today’s Scripture Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Look, the young woman is wit

Today’s Reflection One of the most meaningful gifts . . . is the invitation to wonder as I wander. This wondering helps me see what I am experiencing in a new light, often a light that arises within myself as I stop to consider new perspectives. —Marsha Crockett, Sacred Conversation: Exploring the Seven Gifts of Spiritual Direction (Upper Room Books, 2022) Today’s Question How has considering others’ perspectives helped you on your journey? Join the conversation . Today’s Sc

Today’s Reflection Only when we embrace all we have experienced as human beings—from our heartbreaking agonies to our ecstatic victories—and freely return them to God can they be used for our healing and as part of the story on our journey. —Marsha Crockett, Sacred Conversation: Exploring the Seven Gifts of Spiritual Direction (Upper Room Books, 2022) Today’s Question What life experience can you embrace and return to God for your healing? Join the conversation . Today’s Scr

Today’s Reflection A spiritual director [is like] a musical director who neither writes the music nor performs it. The director listens, observes, tunes the ear, blends the notes into a harmonious whole, and highlights spots of dissonance or hurried rhythms. —Marsha Crockett, Sacred Conversation: Exploring the Seven Gifts of Spiritual Direction (Upper Room Books, 2022) Today’s Question When has a friend, mentor, or spiritual director helped you see God’s work in your life mo

Today’s Reflection God is constantly tapping our shoulders, asking us to wake up to the divine messages in all of creation that are waiting to be received by any who have eyes to see and ears to hear. —Marsha Crockett, Sacred Conversation: Exploring the Seven Gifts of Spiritual Direction (Upper Room Books, 2022) Today’s Question How might you benefit from a companion helping you see where God is leading? Join the conversation . Today’s Scripture If any of you is lacking in w

Today’s Reflection We grow blind to the petty valuations of the world. We grow blind to the obscurity which is our lot, and, in no resentment, joyfully live in Eternity just where we are. —Keith Beasley-Topliffe, Editor, The Upper Room Spiritual Classics: Writings of Thomas Kelly (Upper Room Books, 2017) Today’s Question Has becoming a Christian changed the way you measure your lot in life? How can you find eternal joy that starts right where you are in this life? Today’s Sc

Today’s Reflection Spiritual maturity is not tested by the frequency of our mystical moments of exaltation, but by the glad and calm serenity of will in Him which is ours when barrenness and dryness come upon us. —Keith Beasley-Topliffe, Editor, The Upper Room Spiritual Classics: Writings of Thomas Kelly (Upper Room Books, 2017) Today’s Question When was the last time you faced a spiritual desert? Did you face it with God’s calm serenity? Join the conversation . Today’s Scri