this is my offering...

Romans 15:14-16

Paul lists the attributes of his audience: full of goodness, complete in knowledge and competent in teaching. The key words are "minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles" and "priestly duty of proclaiming the gospel". These phrases indicate that Paul understood that his work was not just something he decided to do but that he was on a God-ordained mission and his work was as significant to God's glory as the priests of the OT who prepared and offered sacrifices on behalf of the people. The offering that Paul is preparing is the Gentiles - Paul is seeking the glory of God by taking the gospel to the Gentiles so they can respond to his love and goodness. This is so incredibly cool to me! The thing is that Paul worked really hard to present this offering and paid an incredible price to do so.
This convicts me: do I see my role as a God-ordained mission to the youth of Lethbridge? Am I doing everything I can to reach them with the gospel for the glory of God? How much effort am I putting into preparing the offering? Some of the things that I will have to do are really difficult - connect with students that I have a hard time finding anything in common with, remembering people's names (that's so hard for me for some reason - perhaps because I am too self-absorbed?) so they know they are known, cared for and significant, putting hours into preparing an evening that nobody seems to appreciate. I don't want you to get the impression that my job is terrible - the truth is that I love it. But I do need to keep spurring myself on to do all that I can to offer the youth of Lethbridge as an offering to Christ. I can never get comfortable because there are still so many to reach with the gospel.
God, please show me how to best bring you glory as I seek to prepare this offering for you.