He sat on the end bench and watched his team battle up and down the court. In the beginning, he was cheering his team on excitedly. When the coach looked down the bench, looking to give one of the starters a breather, he tried to look ready to go. Someone else was always chosen. It was a close game, down to the wire. As he watched the quarters pass, and the seconds tick away, he knew he wasn’t getting in the game. His team didn’t need him. Maybe they didn’t even want him. He wouldn’t be a part of the victory. He didn’t want to be the reason they lost. It is hard to be a non-essential part of the team.
Right now, many feel like they are riding the bench. As of now, non-essential gatherings are forbidden. Non-essential businesses are asked to close or change the way they offer their services. Recreation was deemed non-essential weeks ago. Non-essential workers are being sent home or laid off. People are told to stay in their homes. Whether you call it “shelter in place” or “stay home. Stay safe,” the result is the same, our lives are put on hold while we wait for the determination that the threat to our general society has passed. If you don’t need to leave the home, don’t. If you are deemed non-essential, don’t bother doing anything.
I get it. We are all trying hard to keep our distance to slow the spread of a deadly virus. Keeping workers at home, shutting doors and moving online, and asking people to stay home, should help. Still, I think that term non-essential is misleading. Not every activity we do throughout our days will directly keep us alive. Not every business supplies life-giving or life-saving materials. Businesses might not fall apart if a certain worker stays home, but does that mean they are not-essential?
Are any of us non-essential? Are any of the things God gives us to do? We may struggle to see where we fit into gears of the universe. We may feel like we don’t matter, and like everything else in the world would just go on without us. In this time of social distancing, it feels like we are riding the bench. We feel disconnected, and we wish we were a part of things. The Lord says you are.
By God’s grace you are a part of something wonderful. By God’s grace and knowledge, your work always matters. This is true of everyone, The Psalmist sings, I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Your works are wonderful and my soul knows that very well….In your book all of them were written. Days were determined before any of them existed (Psalm 139:14, 16). God created each person with a purpose. He formed the minute details of our bodies and minds with his great wisdom. He knew what works we would do and how long our lives would last, even before we drew our first breaths. Even before you started to grow in your mother’s womb, God thought you were essential.
This is even more true of God’s people. You are essential to his work on earth. He has made you a part of something great, the living and active body of Christ, the kingdom of God, the universal church. He chose you, not because of anything you have done. He chose you, not because he knew what great things you might do, but Paul tells us It is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is a gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast (Ephesians 2:8, 9). Out of God’s love he chose you. He chose to make you alive in Christ. He chose to forgive all your sins in Christ. He chose, purely out of his grace, to raise you up with Christ to enjoy all the joys of heaven. Paul wasn’t done yet. Because God has chosen you placed you in his kingdom, you are essential. For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared in advance so that we would walk in them (Ephesians 2:10).
The Lord has no benchwarmers on his team. He has no non-essential personnel in his Kingdom. He has formed the Christian heart in Christ for good works. He uses your unique abilities, your unique thoughts, your unique prayers, your unique words, your essential uniqueness, to help and encourage those around you and to do those things God wants done. Little children, even babies, with their laughter, their innocence, their beautiful faith, are essential to God, not for their potential but because God has prepared childlike things for them to do. The elderly, even the infirm who require so much care, they are essential to God, he delights in their prayers. Their faith is a testament this world desperately needs to hear. Their care is an opportunity for others to love another human being. Workers of all kinds, who make all kinds of goods, who provide all kinds of services, especially those who do this with God’s love in their hearts and guiding their hands, they are essential. Christian parents, Christian teachers, Christian students, Christian volunteers, Christian who study the word, speak the word, pray the word, you are always essential to God.
No one likes to sit on the bench. We aren’t created to do nothing or to live a non-essential life. In Christ, God always has meaningful work for you to do. Even in quarantine, let’s keep at it.