Really Useful Engines

"They're two they're four they're six they're eight
Shunting trucks and hauling freight
red and green and brown and blue
they're the really useful crew

All with different roles to play
Round Tidmouth sheds or far away,
Down the hills and round the bends
Thomas and friends"

I wish I knew how many times I've heard that theme song. Thomas and his friends. Thomas is a train or "tank engine" that lives on the island of Sodor. He and his "friends", other tank engines, are my oldest boy Will's favorite toys. Thomas is blue while his other friends are different colors. For example, Percy is green and Salty is red.

Thomas the Train was a creation of a minister from Great Britain named W.V. Awdry. The British children's television show was first broadcasted in 1984. However, what I want to focus on is the key component to the chorus listed above. It states that "they're the really useful crew, all with different roles to play".

I think that there is a Spiritual truth found here. Usefulness. What does it mean to be useful? Does it mean that we must be athletic, intelligent, or possess an uncanny giftedness in a particular field? Does it mean that we must all have the same sorts of gifts and abilities? I dont think so and I dont think God intended it to be that way. We all have "different roles to play." Not all of us are called to vocational ministry just as not all of us are called to teach preschoolers. Yet, all of us have been given a gift to be useful in the kingdom of God.

And I think for the most part we all want to be useful to God. We are constantly seeking out and determining what Spiritual Gifts that God has given to us. We get frustrated when we don't understand where we fit in and where we can be "useful." I know I do. I am in the pursuit of such usefulness too.

Fortunately, God knows this and desires for you and I to be useful. He designed each one of us to be useful for Him. In other words, you and I were designed for a purpose. Our lives are not mere mistakes of random probability. They are instead ordained by God and important to Him. You are important and useful to Him. However, it is only within the confines of a life spent with Him that we can come to understand what the concept of usefulness to God really means.

In Romans 9:17, Paul writes "For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, 'For this very purpose I raised you up, to demonstrate My power within you, and that My name might be proclaimed throughout the whole Earth.'"

This is a quote from Exodus 9:16 where God spoke to Moses and told him to tell the Pharoah these words. Thus, even a person who is evil can be used by God for His purpose.

How much more, then can a person who has accepted Jesus as Lord be used by God to demonstrate God's power within his or her life and to proclaim His name throughout the entire Earth?

Give your life to Jesus and accept Him as Lord. In doing so, you will serve the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

You will also become one really useful engine for God's "island of Sodor", His kingdom here on Earth.