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, October 10 [Vida Dutton Scudder]
1 Corinthians 12:27-13:3. If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal....If I give away all my possessions, and if I hand over my body so that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.
In 2007, two men discovered the connection between two underwater caves, once thought to be separate caves. Where the two caves came together, the men dropped a bottle of champagne to mark and celebrate their discovery.
When we make a discovery, whether in the outside world or within ourselves, our first instinct is to claim the territory. Even when we begin to see that the only way to transcend this life is by loving God and others, we want to mark that discovery and celebrate it as if we had created it.
But the moment we take credit for love, or wear love as a badge, or use love to think of ourselves as having greater favor with God, we become not God's own, but a "noisy gong or a clanging cymbal."
In other words, when it comes to unconditional love, the moment I claim "I've got it!" is the moment I lose it.
PRAY for the Diocese of Tamale (West Africa)
Ps 137:1-6(7-9), 144 * 104; Jeremiah 35:1-19; Matthew 9:35-10:4
View the daily Lectionary Readings at Satucket.com.
Or view the Bible passages at Biblegateway.com.
A Meditation for Pentecost
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