Offering Up a Computer Crash?

In business, it's important to maximize your opportunities. You know how it is. It's a tough world out there - especially these days when the economy's wobbly and small businesses flop around while the government pumps billions to prop up banks and big business. (There, I said it. And don't accuse me of being anti-capitalist or socialist or anything. It's basically true. It's part of our "corporatist" state - a subject for another time.)

So when opportunity knocks, you'd better take advantage of it; They're few and far between sometimes.

Now, I've been in business long enough to know how important this is - taking advantage of opportunities, that is. So you can imagine how I felt when an opportunity crossed my desk that I almost blew. Actually, it wasn't really a business opportunity, but it was definitely related to my business. See, we just had a major hard drive failure at work.

Now, if you work for one of those big corporations, you might be shrugging your shoulders. Hey, call IT, right? But if you run a small business, maybe you understand. This is a big deal.

Okay, so I called my IT guy. He's on it. But, being a small business I'm involved. And being a small business, one hard drive failure has a big impact on my day, even though we back up and all that. It just throws things off is what it does. Again, all you small business owners probably understand.

So where's the opportunity that I almost missed?

Well, what happened is that as I was pulling my hair out and grinding my teeth - as everything that could go wrong went wrong after the hard drive failed - I almost forgot to "offer it up." Not only did I almost forget, but it's Lent! And I'm Catholic. Duh.

But I did remember - barely. And maybe how I remembered makes a good story. Here goes.

So this morning, I was late for Mass (during Lent...Aaarrgghhh!). And after telling Our Lord how sorry I was, I decided that (even though I was feeling the pressure of getting right back to the office and getting down to work to make up for all the lost time due to this hard drive thing) I would say the Stations of the Cross after Mass. Figured I could kind of make up for being so late for Mass.

Oh, and on top of that, I realized that - this being already two weeks into Lent - I hadn't even prayed the Stations once. Talk about "guilt feelings"!

Anyway, I said the Stations - without rushing, mind you - and slowly I kind of calmed down a bit and really did think of Our Lord's suffering and death. And guess what? I remembered that we Catholics know to offer up our own sufferings and sorrows and even discomforts not because we're trying to be tough guys or self-sacrificing or anything, but because we know all about how Our Lord suffered for us - far beyond any suffering we have.

So, yeah, I realized I almost forgot to offer up this hard drive disaster and my hair-pulling and everything else that went with it.

And then came the special bonus. A personal matter that's really been difficult to deal with popped into my head and I realized that Our Lord suffered so much more than the feelings of suffering and anxiety that this personal matter has been causing. And I even got just a whiff of peace about that personal matter too.

Later on, the personal thing got me upset all over again. I'm not worried about that. In fact, I probably deserve whatever suffering it's causing - and more.

But at least I managed to rescue that awful work disaster from being a blown opportunity into a grace-filled moment.

Thank you Lord. I know it was You - Your grace - who turns my work into your work. You even manage to turn these disasters into something good - somehow.

Of course, just because I managed to offer it up, and figured out how You're right there helping me along the way, doesn't mean I'm not still frazzled. But that's OK. I'll keep offering it up.