Not only do the poor need us, we need the poor to remind us what being human is about. In the same way that the poor learn to identify themselves with their lack, the wealthy learn to identify themselves with their wealth. It is in the meeting of the two that we can recognize ourselves and one another as human.–Justin McRoberts

Below is a quote– I’d encourage you to read all of it.  I’m frequently challenged by many of the blogs over at conversantlife.com– worth a place in your feed reader!

I’m increasingly convinced that our ambitions related to making an impact are misguided, nothing more than a cloak to cover our own insecurities with God’s ‘blessing’.  Instead of an impact, our ambitions ought to be related to being an aroma, as Paul says, “TO God… AMONG men.”  Aromas are a byproduct that reveal the essence of something.  They don’t set out to BE aromas, they simply are:  Pine trees smell like pine; cigarette smoke like tabacco; coffee like heaven.  That’s the way it is.

“To be grateful for the good things that happen in our lives is easy, but to be grateful for all of our lives–the good as well as the bad, the moments of joy as well as the moments of sorrow, the successes as well as the failures, the rewards as well as the rejections–that requires hard spiritual work. Still, we are only truly grateful people when we can say thank you to all that has brought us to the present moment. As long as we keep dividing our lives between events and people we would like to remember and those we would rather forget, we cannot claim the fullness of our beings as a gift of God to be grateful for.

Let us not be afraid to look at everything that has brought us to where we are now and trust that we will soon see in it the guiding hand of a loving God.”

Henri Nouwen