A blessed life?

To live as Christ is closer to not having security in place, having no place to lay my head, giving the shirt off my back if needed, forsaking all others and seeking The Lord with my heart soul and mind.  Thoughts like Merton come to mind...

“A life is either all spiritual or not spiritual at all. No man can serve two masters. Your life is shaped by the end you live for. You are made in the image of what you desire." Or counting all loss joy- yeah Paul says that.  Or as Corrie Ten Boom "praising god for the fleas as she and other women suffer in concentration camps.  Mother Teresa living sacrificially as she served the very least of these. Is that what I picture as a "good" and fruitful life wrapped in success and achievement?  Not really.  As I work with teenagers, I am reminded at how my life is speak!   It has the potential to scream injustice or mock suffering....giving real life answers of hope midst tragedy that faces these typical teens face daily.  Some of them function almost flawlessly but crave the simple of things.  Simple things like "cook me oatmeal or grits Ms. Erwin; do you have any food today?"   It's  those times where I am confronted with questions and and the attack of my belief system.  Do these kids have a gift that some of us with all the memory verses and badges of honor never really achieved?  Do they have insight in the quest for hope without realizing and knowledge that they lead me? I am faced with my response.  It's all in the reaction.  Depending on the reaction enables me to walk deeper in their lives or tread softly on the sidelines.   So the keys to the kingdom...well they seem to be held by the dirty feet of sinners saved again and again by the loving arms of Grace, repeatedly covered by tender mercies and protected by the palm of God...midst the fires of temptation and situations of no choice facing ridicule often by those who sit in plush air controlled filtered atmospheres.