“Offer it up” is one of those concepts that constantly escapes me. So it didn’t surprise me to find it as the “question of the week” on the back of the Sunday bulletin. I know I’m not alone in wrestling with this idea.
I read the answer, which included a quote from Pope Benedict XVI — something about making things, events, etc meaningful. OK. That’s fine.
But what finally gave me something to reflect on and possibly practice was the second part of the answer. The part where the author got past offering a situation, or a time of suffering to Jesus and turned that idea inside out a bit. When I’m dealing with daily trials — annoyances, frustrating times that seems so useless, or even pain, I need to let Jesus into the situation with me. “Offer it up” as a space for being with Jesus. Let him walk with me through it and give it a meaning. I have trouble with offering my annoyances or suffering for the good of others – that equation makes no sense. But, I can understand accepting my frustrations and suffering and allowing them to become meaningful times for connecting with God. I can sit with the situation and offer it to God to make whatever good of it that can be made. That is the offering I can make and make sense of.
Now, if only I can remember this the next time I’m sitting in traffic fuming over lost time and lost gasoline, or when I’m in the throws of a raging headache. That will be the test of whether I can learn to “offer it up.”