How Dull It Is, Not to Shine in Use by Jason G. Lutz

I would like to borrow from Tennyson’s poem Ulysses. This will be brief and I think there is a tremendous value here:

I am a part of all that I have met;
Yet all experience is an arch wherethro’
Gleams that untravell’d world whose margin fades
For ever and forever when I move.
How dull it is to pause, to make an end,
To rust unburnish’d, not to shine in use!

How dull it is… not to shine in use. In measuring purpose of human life, I would argue that being useful to others is second only to having a close relationship with our Creator. Consider Jesus’ relationship with His disciples. During the time He spent with them, He molded them and sent them on adventures they would not have been on otherwise. He was useful to them; thereby they became useful to us through their writings and teachings.

And I believe that we are always in danger of losing our understanding of this usefulness. Laziness is not only sin, it can seem to be a self-preservation mechanism. We focus on ourselves and shut down to protect our selves from unappreciation, hurt, rejection, or failure. Laziness can be manifested in many ways, but it is not manifested by improving the lives of those around us or our communities. Understand that we are not here discussing a laziness in physical work or exercise or political activity; we are discussing a laziness of not utilizing our skills and resources in effort to be useful to others, to help make them better. We can get up early and work hard for a full day and bless no one.

I am intentionally narrowing this definition, because I believe as followers of Christ our chief usefulness is encouraging those around us in the first Purpose: having a close relationship with God. We would do well to ask ourselves the following each day: does my spouse know Christ’s love through me? Do my children grow in Godly wisdom through me? Are my friends learning about God’s goodness through me? Is my church a place of Hope through me? We generate none of these, but each requires our mindset to be about His business.

May we always remember Jesus’ words, “…even as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” (Matthew 20:28)