The Forward Day by Day Archives

These words from today’s psalm sting. A staggering polarization sickens the United States of America, my home country, and many other countries.

What would it take to bring us together? One might think a large-scale weather disaster could, but the troubl....

The life expectancy for Americans at the time of this writing is 78.93 years (it’s 69.73 years for India’s population and 64.12 for South Africans). Any way we look at it, life is short. On the geologic time scale, one’s life isn’t even a microscopic mark on the calendar of existence.

I write this entry about a week after the horrific killing of George Floyd, a black man, by white police officers in Minneapolis. It seems the entire world is reacting to the tragedy; perhaps it will be a long-overdue turning point for humanity. Perhaps it won’t.

If today’s short and direct passage makes you gulp, join the club. Can I avoid committing murder? Easily. Stealing? Not a problem, either (except for the pen I took from the office). Keeping my mouth shut when I’m tempted to cut people down or stretch the truth? Things get a little harder here. ....

The resurrection of the body simply says that we will one day live forever in a state unmarred by pain, illness, attrition, or even death. We strive to achieve that state now via nutrition, exercise, stress reduction, and even medical procedures, but eventually, we all fall apart and return to the e....

The Israelites just don’t seem to get it: God will provide if the people stop grumbling and start being spiritually earnest. They have what they need, even in the face of their challenging situation, but they complain bitterly. God grows angry with their insolence. And then, God relents.

It starts innocently with one small white cloud. Soon, a dozen such clouds, like cotton balls, dot the sky. Not much later, the clouds coalesce, rise, and darken. The air thickens. The wind gets pushy. The temperature drops sharply. Then the first spear of lightning snatches your attention, followed....

The word reset—once meant to reboot a computer system to an earlier setting—now is used in everyday parlance. We reset companies or metrics or communities after a difficult situation.

But what if we could “reset” ourselves? The truth is that we can....

In today’s passage, we see that Jesus is even more than redeemer. Here, he is also master debater, taking a trap and breaking its steel spring in two. The well-known author C.S. Lewis writes of Jesus’ teaching, saying it is “full of wisdom and shrewdness.” We see that shrewdness as Jesus ans....

The word “Christian,” as seen in today’s passage, can function as a proper noun (“I’m a Christian”) or an adjective (as in “Christian music”).

As a proper noun, Christian seems to have a negative connotation these days. While American Chris....

Colts, stones, lilies, and sparrows: Jesus can’t seem to stop referring to non-human creation. These references appear all over the Bible. The creatures and components of the physical world are important to God. And why not? God made them, regardless of the many theories about exactly how that hap....

My hiking boot shifted suddenly by a few millimeters. I immediately recovered from the misstep, which could have sent me freefalling to my death.

This scenario has unfolded frequently when I’ve climbed peaks in the Rocky Mountains. At times, I’ve been s....

Today’s passage can come off as harsh, apparently revealing a jealous God too ready to punish anyone who will not follow. It helps me to remember that God’s wisdom exceeds ours. God knows what happens when people make bad choices: they suffer. I must remember, too, that a warning is not the same....

I can’t run five miles at a sub-eight-minute per mile pace anymore, and I can’t ride my bike with my hands off the handlebars, no matter how hard I try. As someone with many markers of Asperger’s Syndrome, I often have trouble fitting in when in a large group.

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She lies in bed in a nursing home. Her left arm is permanently, rigidly drawn up by her face; her left leg, pale as paste, shifts position ceaselessly. She says nothing because she can’t say anything. Her eyes might be trying to communicate; they might not. I can’t tell.

In one of the faith traditions of my younger years, I was taught to give so that I would get something back. On more than one occasion, I heard a speaker proclaim, “I give to get!” Their proof for this formula was Jesus himself, who gave himself to “get” (save) us. Altruism, generosity, or e....

I enthusiastically tell my Christian college students about the Confession of Sin, part of the liturgy of the Episcopal Church. In the confession, we admit that we’ve sinned “in thought, word, and deed, by what we have done, and by what we have left undone.” I appreciate the confession’s com....

In a memorable episode of the animated television sitcom The Simpsons, Ralph, a boy who struggles to fit in, pursues the heart of Lisa, who is not interested in him romantically. When Ralph asks his father for advice about winning a girl’s attention, he responds with one word: “Persiste....

If anyone could be classified as an expert follower of Jesus, it would be Paul. Yet here Paul freely admits that he is troubled by disputes and fears. He is exhausted and unsure. Sound familiar?

Paul does, later, express great relief. However, he is clearly ....

In human history, foreigners have been too often met with suspicion, contempt, persecution, and violence. Some things never change.

In typical fashion, Jesus singles out the “foreigner” and makes it clear that this person, in particular, deserves honor f....