Daily Prayer 365

Written by: Julia Smolucha

Day 329
Wednesday, July 26, 2023

Scripture
Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in your midst? —1 Corinthians 3:16

Wisdom
God created an inner sanctuary in each of us. —Lerita Coleman Brown, An Ordinary Mystic

Prayer
Open unto me an inner sanctuary, a window into your Spirit that dwells in my midst. Amen. —The Reverend Dr. Katie Snipes Lancaster

Joy Anyway, I: Praying with Joy

July 30, 2023

And so we get this letter from Paul to his friends that begins with this tender, effusive salutation I thank my God for every remembrance of you, always in every one of my prayers for all of you, praying with joy for your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now. I sense that you feel this way about one another from time to time. I thank my God for every remembrance of you. For one, these words “I thank my God for every remembrance” are written across the front of this Church’s 100th anniversary book published in 1996 by our friend Sally Campbell.

Two Minority Reports from the Hebrew Bible, IX: The Inescapable Love of God

July 23, 2023

“I knew it,” he says. “I just knew this was going to happen. That’s just the way you are, God—you old softy with the bleeding heart.” Jonah describes God as “gracious, merciful, and abounding in steadfast love.” Over the generations it had become the terse précis of Israel’s understanding of God: “gracious, merciful, and abounding in steadfast love.” And Jonah doesn’t like it. Jonah would rather die than live in a world where such people as the Ninevites get a second chance.

Two Minority Reports in the Hebrew Bible, VIII: Inescapable Tasks of God

July 16, 2023

Haven’t we all been in a situation where speaking up could make us look foolish, or worse? Colleagues hesitate to question a doctor’s prescription error. Engineers are pushed to meet deadlines even when there’s a faulty part. Students do social calculus before deciding to stand up for someone being bullied at the next lunch table. In The "Out-Laws" movie that’s popular on Netflix, Owen, played by Adam DeVine, weighs the risk of losing his fiancée if he tells her “Your parents are bank robbers.” Harvard Business School Professor Amy Edmondson names this the voice-silence calculation. It turns out that remaining silent is often easier, because the almost certain and immediate benefit provides safety from retaliation and being wrong. On the other hand, speaking up benefits the group, often at some unknown and less likely point in the future. Can you blame Jonah for choosing to run away rather than speak up? The Ninevites get the benefit of God’s mercy, while Jonah’s doomsday prediction makes him look less reliable than a soapbox preacher yelling on the corner.

Daily Prayer 365

Daily Prayer 365

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Joy Anyway, I: Praying with Joy

Two Minority Reports from the Hebrew Bible, IX: The Inescapable Love of God

Two Minority Reports in the Hebrew Bible, VIII: Inescapable Tasks of God

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