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About Disciplines

The Upper Room Disciplines provides an opportunity to look more deeply at scripture by offering a week of devotions by a single author on a particular theme.

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Latest Disciplines Devotions

The Thin Places of Transformation - February 11, 2021

February 11, 2021

The opening verses of this psalm paint a picture of God calling to us “from the rising of the sun to its setting.” This transforming God yearns for us to notice...

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The Thin Places of Transformation - February 10, 2021

February 10, 2021

Last spring our Academy group traveled from our retreat center into the heart of Birmingham, AL, for a civil rights pilgrimage. We walked through the Civil Rights Institute, witnessing the stories...

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The Thin Places of Transformation - February 9, 2021

February 9, 2021

I serve on the leadership team of the Alabama Two-Year Academy for Spiritual Formation, a program of The Upper Room. As the worship leader, I plan and lead the fourteen services...

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The Thin Places of Transformation - February 8, 2021

February 8, 2021

Only a few weeks ago we celebrated the coming of Light into the world in the form of a tiny baby. Epiphany was a moment of revelation—an “Aha!” Here at the...

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The Call to Pay Attention - February 7, 2021

February 7, 2021

One important part of my work as a college chaplain is to begin faculty and staff meetings with an opening reflection to calm our minds and center our being. The poet...

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The Call to Pay Attention - February 6, 2021

February 6, 2021

We are in the liturgical season that follows the Epiphany. In this season, we recognize the ways in which Jesus revealed himself to those he encountered in his ministry. The Magi...

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The Call to Pay Attention - February 5, 2021

February 5, 2021

Like others in the last section of the psalter, Psalm 147 is a praise psalm. While it clearly calls us to a posture of praise, it also names a range of...

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The Call to Pay Attention - February 4, 2021

February 4, 2021

In the second half of the text from Isaiah, again we hear these words on the prophet’s lips, “Don’t you know? Haven’t you heard?” This time, however, Isaiah gets straight to...

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The Call to Pay Attention - February 3, 2021

February 3, 2021

The prophet Isaiah is writing in the time of the sixth century (BCE), a time when destruction and exile have left the community fractured and in chaos. The prophet seems to...

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The Call to Pay Attention - February 2, 2021

February 2, 2021

When I was going through the ordination process, it felt like I told my “call story” a hundred times. In ministerial circles, a “call story” is the story of the way...

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