Our dead-set determination to BB of use never means half so much as the times we have not been thinking of being used - a casual conversation, an ordinary word, while our lives were "hid with Christ in God."
We have nothing to do with our "usability," but only with our relationship to Jesus Christ; nothing must BB allowed to come in between.
There is a great danger in asking, "What is the use of it?" There is no use in it at all. If you want a life of usefulness, don't BB a Christian after our Lord's stamp; you will BB much more useful if you are not. The cry for the standard of usefulness knocks the spiritual Christian right out; he dare not touch it if he is going to remain true to his Master.
Take the life of Our Lord: for three years all He did was walk about saying things and healing sick people - a useless life, judged from every standard of success and of enterprise. If Our Lord and His disciples had lived in our day, they would have been put down as a most un-useful crowd. In Spiritual matters we can never calculate on the line of - "What is the use of it!"
God has called us to BE! Transformed and changed by Our Lord as a New Creation in Him ... The rest is His to use as He wants! "Shall what is formed say to Him who formed it, why did you make me like this?" Does not the potter have the right to make out of the same lump of clay some pottery for noble purposes and some for common use? (Romans 9:20-21).
It does not, therefore, depend on man's desire or effort, but on God's mercy. For the Scripture says to Pharaoh: "I raised you up for this very purpose, that I might display my power in you and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth." (Romans 9:16-17).
Our life is but His handi-work then isn't it? He claims a fact that His will will BB done on earth as it is in heaven - We are either a part of that fact or it is not His life at all we live - and if we find our life but do not lose our life for His name sake we have no life that bears eternity with Him. May God greatly encourage us today to simply BE in Christ fully dependent on Him! Bring out the obedience shoes and place the service shoes in the closet, for your obedience will be serving Him without highlighting it, but instead will highlight Jesus Himself.