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Being
Useful vs Being Used Up
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This morning as I briefly perused through USA
Weekend that comes in the Sunday newspaper, I ran across a
thought-provoking quote in an article about Ethan Hawke, the actor. Hawke
said, “There’s a great George Bernard Shaw line that always
burned in my head: ‘I want to be thoroughly used up when I die.’
It’s been kind of a mantra.” Not a bad philosophy by which to live
one’s life, if taken in the right sense. In fact, the
apostle Paul had this very philosophy. He said to the Corinthian
brethren, “I will most gladly spend and be expended for your
souls” (2 Cor 12.15). That’s always burned in my head
and heart. The idea is to be used up in service of others and of
course, of God. I want to spend and be expended in the service
of the kingdom. I want to be thoroughly used up, but in useful
-ness. There are folks that are thoroughly “used up” when
they die and yet have been quite useless. There is a world of
difference between being useful and merely being used up. What is
that difference and how can we avoid the latter? First of all, sin both makes us useless and uses us up. In showing that all have sinned, Paul says in Romans, “All have turned aside, together they have become useless” (3.12). Sin itself is not only useless, but it can destroy what usefulness we might have otherwise achieved. For example, a single act of adultery can often destroy a man’s life work - that one sin making null and void all the good he might have otherwise accomplished. Consider the damage done by David’s single act of adultery. But sin continued-in will not only make one useless, but will also “use us up” so that our body and brains are “spent” though nothing was accomplished. Occasional sin can make us useless, but lived-in sin will quickly use us up. Another thing that makes us useless is half-hearted devotion. In Lk 14.33-35, Jesus says that if anyone wishes to be his disciple, he must “count the cost” and “give up (literally “bid farewell to”) all his own possessions” . Otherwise we become like salt that has lost its usefulness because it has lost its taste. Now, how can salt lose its salty taste? Only by being intermixed and diluted with other elements. When our service becomes too diluted with worldly distractions, we become useless. And we also get used up, as our energy gets spent in fruitless pursuits. On the other hand, if we wish to be useful to our Master, to be spent and expended in his service, then we need to be continually and diligently adding to our faith such qualities as moral excellence, knowledge, self-control, perseverance, godliness, brotherly kindness and love (2 Pet 1.5-8). “For,” Peter says, “if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they render you neither useless nor unfruitful in the true knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ” (2 Pet 1.8). Only then can we be truly useful rather than merely used up. -This article is from Randy's "Monday Morning Musings". If you would like to be added to his e-mail list, please click on button below. |