Offer it up

Because Christians in Communist and Moslem countries have plenty of opportunities to suffer for Christ and are, in record numbers, being martyred for their faith in Jesus Christ they, to me, represent the apple of God’s eye. 

When I was a teenager, I assumed that the only suffering worthy of God’s approval was when one was dragged away to jail for having stood on a stump on some street corner “spreading the Good News.”

We in America, where freedom of religion has not been totally obliterated yet, do not have to suffer like this. So, most of our suffering, I once thought, amounted to nothing more than great wastes of time and not worthy of God’s approval. I also assumed that these ideas were mine alone, until today.  Today I heard someone express those same notions while beating themselves up for being “so sinful”.

Now I wonder how many others believe the same way.  How many Christians view illness, bad marriages, abuse, the battle to rid oneself of bad thoughts, and just about everything else as having no connection to furthering the Gospel of Jesus Christ?  And how many feel this suffering is for nothing and of little interest to God? 

In recent years, I have gotten to know a lot of faithful Catholic Christians, and one thing they all believe about suffering is, all suffering does matter to God and it is redemptive.  When these Christians suffer, they all say: “Offer it up.”  

Offer it up to the Lord as a sacrifice of praise.  Offer it up as a tutorial that will someday help me to help someone else.  Offer it up like a child who comes to his daddy with a “booboo”, and snuggles on Daddy’s lap so he can be hugged.

This someone I mentioned earlier has suffered severe hardships for decades.  Not like Christians in North Korea or Egypt, but like Christians who stand by their convictions to do what is right even though doing what is wrong would free them from their hard circumstances.

  Staying in a difficult marriage because one believes her vows before God are more important than her happiness, turning over to God one’s fears after receiving a diagnosis of cancer, quitting a good job instead of working for a shady boss; all these sufferings “spread the Good News” through our attitude and actions in them.

Where I got the idea that only by suffering the consequences of stumping for God on a street corner or in the bowels of Africa was worthy, I’ll never know. It has been very freeing to know that whatever is given me to deal with is an opportunity to “offer it up” for my salvation and the salvation of others.