If I could only more closely follow his admonitions...

Those who know me are aware of the influence the writings of Dietrich Bonhoeffer have had on my ministry and, indeed, my life.  I read Bonhoeffer several times a week.  Since I gave away my entire library when I retired -- several thousand volumes -- I don't have in my possession many of the treasured Bonhoeffer books.  When you live fulltime in an RV travelling the country as we do, with only 300 square feet of space available, you choose to give up things, even some things dear to your heart.  I am able to read a lot of Bonhoeffer on the net.  That hardly satisfies having the hard copy in your hands, but it has to suffice.  I do have a copy of A Year with Dietrich Bonhoeffer which offers a reading of his work each day of the year.  Today I read the following from A Testament to Freedom.

One day, at the last judgment, he will separate the sheep and the goats and will say to those on his right: 'Come, you blessed, ...I was hungry and you fed me....'  (Matt. 25:34ff).  To the astonished question of when and where, he answered: 'What you did to the least of these, you have done to me....'  (Matt. 25:40)  With that we are faced with the shocking reality: Jesus stands at the door and knocks ....  He asks you for help in the form of a beggar, in the form of a ruined human being in torn clothing.  He confronts you in every person that you meet.... He lives in the form of the person in our midst....'

What would it be like to live that way every single moment of every day?  What would it take for me to do that, to live like that?  To see Christ in the woman at the checkout counter, in the man on the corner holding a sign asking for food, in the person I pass on the sidewalk, in the man and woman sitting with me in the doctor's waiting room, etc.  How do I see Christ in Obama,for whom I hold little respect?  What about seeing Christ in the form of the minister colleague who has made a decision to flaunt his or her misinterpretation of Scripture in the face of Jesus --someone with whom I significantly disagree? 

What would it be like to live like that every day?    These questions trouble me.  You...?