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

Today’s Reflection There is nothing automatic about suffering, so that suffering infallibly produces great souls. . . . Only those who go into the travail of today, bearing a seed within them, a seed of awareness of the heavenly dimensions of humanity, can return in joy. —Keith Beasley-Topliffe, Editor, The Upper Room Spiritual Classics: Writings of Thomas Kelly (Upper Room Books, 2017) Today’s Question How is suffering different when you suffer with God? Join the conversati

Today’s Reflection God’s will has already been given to us in scripture. We do not have to wait for the revelation we seek; it is there to be found. God calls us to walk with a guided heart through reading. —Steve Harper, Walking in the Light: Knowing and Doing God’s Will (Upper Room Books, 2014) Today’s Question What scriptures speak to your current situation? How will attending to them help you discern God’s will? Join the conversation . Today’s Scripture Until I arrive, g

Today’s Reflection Discernment is related to our ability to walk with an open heart. We do so because we believe God is love. We have nothing to fear. —Steve Harper, Walking in the Light: Knowing and Doing God’s Will (Upper Room Books, 2014) Today’s Question What fears will you set aside in order to understand God clearly? Join the conversation . Today’s Scripture Incline your hearts to the LORD, the God of Israel.—Joshua 24:23 (NRSVUE) Prayer for the Week God of all things,

Devotional for 11.19.2025 - apologies for late delivery Today’s Reflection Discernment involves praying to know and do God’s will, and sometimes that will mean disappointing others who have fixed ideas and opinions about what we should do with our lives. —Steve Harper, Walking in the Light: Knowing and Doing God’s Will (Upper Room Books, 2014) Today’s Question What will you say to others when following God’s will causes you to do something unconventional? Join the conversati

Today’s Reflection Discernment is not a technique. It is a disposition of our heart to discover and then do the will of God. The image of “walking in the light” becomes a rich one that makes praying to know God’s will dynamic and inviting. —Steve Harper, Walking in the Light: Knowing and Doing God’s Will (Upper Room Books, 2014) Today’s Question If you could physically walk in the light that shines from God’s face, what would it look like? How does it make you feel? Join the

Today’s Reflection Bless us this day, And bless all we meet: the grieving friend, the laughing child, the stranger on the corner. Fill our hearts with your light and let that light shine through us, bringing friendship and hope, peace and presence. We are yours. —Beth A. Richardson, “This Day,” in Christ Beside Me, Christ Within Me: Celtic Blessings (Upper Room Books, 2016) Today’s Question Where do you see God’s light shining today? Join the conversation . Today’s Scripture

Today’s Reflection Today, may you be open. May you be safe. May you be blessed. Today, may you feel uplifted. May you feel serene. May you feel joy. A thousand, thousand prayers, A thousand, thousand blessings, On you, and you, and you. —Beth A. Richardson, Christ Beside Me, Christ Within Me: Celtic Blessings (Upper Room Books, 2016) Today’s Question What are you thankful for today? Join the conversation . Today’s Scripture O give thanks to the Lord, for he is good;his stead

Today’s Reflection Promise of new lifeComing out of death.Resurrection. Welcome, beauty.Welcome, buds.Welcome, newness.Inside and all around me. You, God, source of hope,Source of healing,Source of life.Welcome, welcome.Make your home in me. —Beth A. Richardson, “Welcome, Spring,” in Christ Beside Me, Christ Within Me: Celtic Blessings (Upper Room Books, 2016) Today’s Question Does awareness of God’s presence in every moment come naturally to you? Join the conversation . Tod

Today’s Reflection When I think of how God works in the life of the pilgrim, I remember the tireless work my dad put into preparing the soil for his garden. Just as he patiently readied the earth, so too God prepares the pilgrim’s heart to receive an encounter with Divine Love. Seasons before we become aware of the movement of God’s love in our life, and long before we see any evidence of the fruit of that love, seeds of faith, hope, and love already are growing in our pilgri

Today’s Reflection Participating in the creative act helps us to see ourselves as we are and as we might become. Like prayer, the creative act draws us into the authentic life that awaits us and into our fulfillment in God. Creativity, an essential tool for shaping the soul, provides a pathway to the fierce truth of our life. Those traveling the spiritual road who yearn for the healing of life’s deepest hurts, the fulfillment of immeasurable longings,or the profound peace fou

Today’s Reflection Celtic Christians acknowledged God’s presence in every aspect of living—from waking to sleeping, from birth to death, from mundane chores to momentous celebrations. . . . Gratitude characterized their way of being as they affirmed the source of life and gave thanks through blessings. —Beth A. Richardson, Christ Beside Me, Christ Within Me: Celtic Blessings (Upper Room Books, 2016) Today’s Question What ordinary things or mundane chores are in your life tod

Today’s Reflection Even simple tasks we perform for our pets, such as brushing their fur or grooming them, can become a spiritual practice and a calming ritual—one that soothes both the pet and the person. —Betsy Singleton Snyder & Gayle McKuin Fiser,  New Tricks: How Pet Ministry Can Transform Faith Communities and Change Lives  (Upper Room Books 2025) Today’s Question How can you turn a task you do for your pet into a spiritual practice? Join the conversation . Today’s Scri

Today’s Reflection One of the spiritual practices I have come to love is the practice of Examen, or a prayerful examination of the day. The practice comes from Saint Ignatius of Loyola, a sixteenth-century mystic and the founder of the Jesuit order of priests. He believed this form of prayer to be one of the most important, and he saw it as a gift of God to be practiced regularly. . . . In this prayer practice, you focus and reflect on the awareness of God’s presence througho

Today’s Reflection I bet we all said this prayer as children: “Now I lay me down to sleep. I pray the Lord my soul to keep. If I die before I wake, I pray the Lord my soul to take.” While I understand the sentiment, there’s something about ending the day focused on death that unsettles me. I want my kids to rest well, assured that their futures in heaven are safe and secure because of the work of Jesus on the cross and his invitation of love in their lives. I’d rather they bo

Today’s Reflection Creativity is so much more than art making. It is a tool for navigating through everyday experiences to find the sacred in each God-given moment. Those who believe they lack creativity have relegated it to remote regions of their life, burying it under the need for security, approval, and control. However, like love, which is stronger than death, creativity does not die; it simply waits to be unearthed and set free. —Karla M. Kincannon, Creativity and Divin