Historian and civil rights activist Vincent Harding describes Howard Thurman (1899–1981) as a Black Pilgrim. Born in the deep South, Thurman experienced on a daily basis segregation, prejudice, and second-class status. Thurman’s spirituality involved discovering a quiet center from which self-affirmation emerged. He found the encounter with a personal and loving God ultimately more powerful than a social order determined to maintain his inferiority.
—Bruce G. Epperly, The Mystic in You: Discovering a God-Filled World (Upper Room Books, 2017)
What scriptures remind you that God loves you?
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When the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy.
—Titus 3:4-5 (NIV)
Prayer for the Week
God who guides us in the quest for justice, awaken my heart to growing edges in my life and in the healing of the world. Amen.
—Prayer excerpted from Bruce G. Epperly, “Prayer of Awareness and Transformation,” The Mystic in You
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(Courtesy of Vanderbilt Divinity Library)
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