We want to be “useful” because we think that our usefulness is a measure of our value.  But our value resides first in our ability to appreciate God’s greatness, to admire him and worship him.

We assign value to our accomplishments in order to feed our pride: “Look what I’ve done!”  But we should not be bragging about what we have done, but about what God has done.

For starters, he has made a human being!  A human being is a wonderful thing, precisely because of his or her capacity to love God; and that is without being useful at all.

Then he has also shown himself to be love.  He was love incarnate, and redeemed us from the abyss at astonishing cost to himself.  And to cap it off, he has given us his Holy Spirit.  The Creator of the universe is our intimate friend and companion!

Usefulness?  The only usefulness we need aspire to is to declare the wonderful works of God.