Used Up

I've been reading one of my all-time favorite books - again.

We Really Do Need Each Other by Reuben Welch is so full of practical truths that I need. In his unique writing style, Welch just lays it all out - plain and simple. With humor sprinkled throughout the book, he creates word pictures that all of us can relate to. The passage below is one that speaks to me when I'm tired . . . this passage and the Scripture that says: Be not weary in well doing for in due season you shall reap if you faint not. It was not a coincidence that that verse - on a tiny card - was tucked into Welch's book when I opened it yesterday. Then I read these words:

Sometimes I wonder what we are saving ourselves for . . .
You know, we want to
save ourselves
and keep ourselves
and hold ourselves back
as though the highest goal in life would be to look good
in our caskets.
It's no special blessing to come to the end of life with
love unshared
selves ungiven
activities unactivated
deeds undone
emotions unextended.
Isn't it God's intention that when we come to the end
of the line
we're just about used up?

Sometimes between now and then
we might as well be letting the candle burn
for the light
for the heat
for the warmth and sharing.
As long as we're going to live
and then die
we'd just better live for Jesus
and love and go ahead and let ourselves be used up.

Thought-provoking words for this almost-sixty-year-old retiree! But I think I get it: we're never retired from being Jesus to our hurting world. I may move at a slower pace and have to rest more often, and Satan may fight me harder than ever, but I plan to be "used up" when my life here is over!

No need to worry; I'll have a new body and mind then, and "tired" and "weary" won't even be part of my vocabulary!

Grace alone, which God provides,
Strength unknown He will provide.
Christ in us, our cornerstone,
We will go forth, in grace alone.
~Grace Alone lyrics by Scott Brown & Jeff Nelson~