Daily Prayer: a resource of Forward Movement

The Forward Day by Day Meditation for August 14, 2020

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FRIDAY, August 14 Jonathan Myrick Daniels

Acts 7:19 He dealt craftily with our race and forced our ancestors to abandon their infants so that they would die.

I wish this shocked me more. Infanticide, genocide, children used to build economies and satisfy urges. This behavior isn’t limited to the past: We still commit atrocities against children of all ages.

How did humankind arrive at such a point? I suppose it started with people seeing “others.” Prejudice and bigotry spark fear’s flame. Justification fuels the fire. “If this is what you do, I swear I will not stop until I have taken revenge on you,” says Samson in our reading from Judges.

Judges, much like Acts, cycles through recurring themes. Reading these books helps me understand why people fear others as they do. It’s in our genetic memory. We have interpreted blessings and misfortunes as rewards and punishments for generations.

These theories don’t always hold up, though. “Bad” and “good” things happen to all people and most people’s behavior is not exclusively “good” or “bad.” We are more alike than different.

MOVING FORWARD: Spend significant time with the readings from Judges and Acts during this cycle of readings.

PRAY for the Dioceses of Melbourne (Australia) and West Missouri

Ps 102 * 107:1-32 | Judges 14:20—15:20 | Acts 7:17-29 | John 4:43-54