Theology of humans

I guess I'm interested in picking a theological fight today. I was reading the 2/21 devotion in the Oswald Chambers classic "My Utmost For His Highest." He is making the point toward the end of the piece that we must not only seek personal holiness which merely keeps us from doing wrong before God, but we must be constantly striving to live and love beyond ourselves. By doing this we finally get at what God wants for us. So far, so good. Then he says, "We have to get rid of this notion - 'Am I of any use?' and make up our minds that we are not, and we may be near the truth." Now I have a problem.

If what he means is that we must not approach things with the attitude that we are equally as important as the Lord in the world, then, yeah, I agree with him. God doesn't really need us for anything. He's the Big Kahuna, right? But the thing is...He chooses for us to be important. God decided that we would be His hands and feet. God said that we are Christ's body on earth. With that in mind, we are crucial to God's plan because that's the way God wants it. As Chambers says at the end of the devotion: "When we are abandoned to God, He works through us all the time." This is oh, so true! Isn't it true, too, that God works on us all in every moment through His prevenient grace? Even those not yet abandoned to God may serve Him and be of use, although that may not be aware of it yet.

When I look at a volunteer who is struggling with their faith, or a teenager on the verge of really claiming Jesus for themselves, I know that we are all of use to God. Insteading of allowing it to go to our heads, we simply need to remember to thank God that we could be a part of such holy work.