offer

What do I have to offer?

Most of us constantly ask ourselves this question – but in a negative way.

“What value do I have?”
“How will I ever be able to do that?”

Or we skip the question and answer just as negatively.

“I always mess things up.”
“I can’t do that. It’s impossible.”

Honestly assessing ourselves and knowing our limits is healthy. Unchecked narcissism will damage myself and those around me. But constant self-doubt that immobilizes us and keeps us from offering ourselves is not what God intended.

God created humanity
      in God’s own image,
             in the divine image God created them,
                    male and female God created them. – Genesis 1:27 (CEB)

We have a lot to offer for we are created in God’s image. Denying our value denies the sovereignty of God. If I think I have nothing to offer, I am saying God has nothing to offer. Of course, I don’t believe this.

Every week I write liturgy and prayers for Sunday worship. One of these elements is the call to offering. Almost every congregation collects an offering. If they didn’t, they wouldn’t be able to do anything else. But the call to offering is about more than collecting money.

In the Reformed tradition, the offering is one of the final movements in the worship service. This isn’t because it’s the conclusion of the show. Rather, it is the point in the service when we move from our act of corporate worship in that time and place to going out in the world to continue our worship and discipleship.

The offering is in response to the praise, confession, assurance of forgiveness, and the hearing and experiencing the Word. It’s not the church’s request for money (although I appreciate financial offerings because they pay my salary) but an opportunity for us to respond with our lives to all that God has done and is.

Here is the call to offering I wrote last week:

Our call to offering begins with God’s call to discipleship. Certain that God will be faithful in the future, we are willing to give generously of ourselves in the present.

Every week, I have the opportunity to ask myself the question “What do I have to offer?” And among the faithful, in the presence of the Living God, I realize that every part of me is an offering. It’s not about not being good enough or offering enough but rather opportunity to remember God’s faithfulness in my life and say “Yes” to God’s invitation to share that faithfulness with others.

What do we have to offer?

The fullness of the image of God as it has been made incarnate within our human selves. May our faith in God give us the confidence to offer ourselves to God and the world.

Our deepest fear
is not that we are inadequate.
Our deepest fear
is that we are powerful beyond measure.
It is our light,
not our darkness,
that most frightens us.
We ask ourselves,
who am I to be brilliant
gorgeous, talented, fabulous?

Actually, who are you not to be?

You are a child of God.

Your playing small
doesn’t serve the world.
There’s nothing enlightened about shrinking
so that other people
won’t feel insecure around you.

We were born to make manifest
the glory of God that is within us.
It’s not just in some of us;
it’s in everyone.
And as we let our own light shine,
we unconsciously give other people
permission to do the same.
As we are liberated from our own fear,
our presence automatically liberates others.

~ Marianne Williamson, A Return to Love:  Reflections on the Principles of a Course in Miracles

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It’s Friday, which means it’s a five-minute free write on the word prompt of the week. Thanks for reading and you can find more offerings here.