Seeds of Awareness

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 conversation.

Today’s Scripture

It is the smallest of all the seeds, but when it has grown it is the greatest of shrubs and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches.—Matthew 13:31 NRSVUE

Prayer for the Week

O God who lives within me, when evil prevails, when dry and barren seasons come, you suffer beside me, and you beckon me into your peace. As I sit, quietly in your presence, you teach me the way of serenity. Amen.