Forward Movement is an official, non-profit agency of the Episcopal Church whose mission is to create compelling content for Christian living. Since 1935 we have published the quarterly devotional Forward Day by Day, as well as pamphlets, booklets, and books that encourage and nourish people in their lives of prayer and faith.
SATURDAY, January 29
Mark 7:1-23. There is nothing outside a person that by going in can defile, but the things that come out are what defile.
“She made me do it. He started it. It’s her fault. If he hadn’t done that, I wouldn’t have done what I did.” Have you ever said any of those things? I sure have. Accepting responsibility for my behavior has been a problem of mine since adolescence.
In truth, no one makes me do anything. Hitting someone back, calling someone a name because he called me one, resenting someone after she hurt me, talking about someone behind his back because he was different, or any of a thousand other “justified” behaviors—everything I ever did that I thought resulted from an external condition was, in truth, an internal choice on my part.
When you enter prison, they tell you that if someone hits you, you must fight back. You don’t have a choice, they say. If you don’t fight back, they’ll be on you like vultures, devouring you because you’re weak. I’ve been in one fight since I’ve been in. It took place during a basketball game. We exchanged words. The guy hit me. I thought about what everyone had told me. I had to do it, they said. No choice; he had started it. I walked off.
Ultimately, everything I do comes from within. (1998)
PRAY for the Diocese of Luwero (Uganda)
Ps 55 * 138, 139:1-17(18-23); Isaiah 51:1-8; Galatians 3:23-29
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