In our own United Methodist Communion, I have watched as folks uncomfortable with change attempt to fight ideas with legislation, only to discover that trying to legislate something out of existence rarely works. This is the answer to our present loss of nerve.ĭeep is the Hunger - A Sense of History, Essay #3Ĭertainly, during my time on earth I have seen this play out again and again and people look for simple answers to address the changes we see in the world. We can only fight an idea with a greater idea, to which, in all phases of our life, we are dedicated with high purpose and deep resolve. We cannot fight an idea with threats, investigations, and scares. This means that we are losing our sense of destiny as a people are relaxing our faith in the ideals which gave birth to our nation and for whose high fulfillment we have in the past marshaled the resources of our common life. The present tendency is to make of everyone a scapegoat for our collective fears. We are rapidly becoming a nation of panic-ridden people. Yesterday I was reading Howard Thurman’s book, Deep is the Hunger, written in the 1950s when I came upon this quote that seems even more true today: Thurman has an unusual and extraordinary gift for using the penetrating word, phrase and illustration…This book and the meditations deal with problems everyone can all relate to…One of the best devotional books of the year.I’ve been thinking a lot recently about the state of our world and the divisions we face, both in this country and in the broader world. “This is a book of rare quality, indeed, admirably suited for use during the season for personal or group devotions…Dr. “The attempt is not to set forth a connected series of observations or reflections, but rather to throw a shaft of light on aspects of thought, of life, of religious experience, as they are encountered in the daily round.”-Howard Thurman, Preface The book is divided into four parts: (1) A sense of history (2) A sense of self (3) A sense of presence and (4) For the quiet time. Thurman provides the devotional reader with twenty-five working papers for meditations, which grew out of his weekly messages at The Church for the Fellowship of All Peoples. In Deep is the Hunger: Meditations for Apostles of Sensitiveness, Dr. His contribution to the large audiences he addressed each year across the country and to his own inter-racial congregation consisted not only of prophetic quality, but also of an ability to lead a group into an atmosphere of devotion. Howard Thurman, the Pastor of The Church for the Fellowship of all Peoples, was one of San Francisco’s most sought-after preachers at college chapels.

Deep is the hunger howard thurman