So here's what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life--your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life--and place it before God as an offering.(Romans 12:1)
When you think about an offering, what do you think about? I know that I tend to think about finding some money that I don't have or some sacrifice, again of something that I really don't have.
But that is one of the cool things about this verse. God is saying take your ordinary life - yeh - the one that you live. And then Eugene Peterson paints a picture of what this could mean for us. The thing that I think is great is that so often we go through the routines of these things and forget to place these parts of our lives before God. These parts are just as important as the others.
Another thing that I think is interesting is the phrase "with God's help." The reason I think this is interesting is that most of us don't need any help to go through our day to day grind. Ah yes, but we surely do. Isn't it in the daily grind that every aspect of our lives take place. The times of rest and relaxation come few and far between. And when they do come, for most of us it is "our" time - not time to offer a sacrifice to God.
I am challenged by this verse to look for ways in my daily grind to offer my life to God, every part as an offering to God. What do you think this could look like in real life?
