What it Really Means to be Essential

Right now one word has become weaved into the fabric of our daily conversations. It’s been splashed across headlines and spoken earnestly by powerful and prominent people. It’s not a catch-phrase, it’s a description. This one word brings accolades and adoration while leaving others to wonder where it leaves them in the middle of all of this. A nine-letter word that draws a line in the proverbial sand. You either are or you aren’t.

Essential.

The surprise for me over the past three months is how that one word made me feel quite rebellious. I bristled at the assumption that some were and others were not. I scoffed at the oversimplified categorization and struggled with worry for those taking the word essential and branding themselves with the idea that they were less than their neighbor or unnecessary in their community. I thought of the ways we are all made to toil and labor. How we sacrifice and struggle to support loved ones and how that work has definitive value. But, that initial desire to bite back against the notion of being essential felt like it came from somewhere deeper than a headline.

In the absence of essential work, I was forced to process my priorities and my frustrations were answered by asking two simple questions:

Does my work define me?

Do I allow the work to have more value than the woman who does it?

The honest answer is yes. Without intention, the work in my life easily and neatly falls into two categories. Essential work gives me feelings of fulfillment, purpose, and pride, while nonessential tasks often leave me feeling frustrated and sometimes even resentful. During this pandemic, when wide-spread restrictions have caused disruption, some of the work I took so much pride in has been placed on hold. At times my sense of purpose feels displaced. The normal, daily rhythm of working towards a measured goal came to an abrupt halt and the work I saw as most tedious and tiresome was suddenly pushed to the forefront.

And then there is faith. It’s amazing how quickly good work replaces the Good News.

I cringe when I realize just how easily it falls into those same two categories. There are aspects of faith I’ve unknowingly chosen as essential in my daily life, and other parts I’ve thoughtlessly allowed to be replaced by work. My head may have not realized the difference but I can assure you my heart has. This feeling of being off-balance and lacking direction hasn’t developed just as a result of a global pandemic. They are feelings that have been bobbing right below the surface of my spirit, aching for release. It’s only now, when my pride yearns for gratification outside of this abnormal routine, that I understand the true nature of discontent in the face of change.

What I lacked was the daily spiritual nourishment which always anchored me. Prayer and time with God became negotiable items on a long to-do list. They were often the first to slip away and the last to be remembered. Hasty prayers mumbled before falling asleep weren’t a purposeful communion with the Lord. And, the more disconnected I felt from God, the more value I placed on the things that gave me a sense of outward purpose. My perception shifted when I replaced being essential to the One who created me, with feeling essential by the work I allowed to define me.

People are saying this is our moment to recalibrate. To go back to basics and realize that the time we have now has always been there, we just chose to fill it with things we deemed more essential. I think there is wisdom in that. I believe we always have a choice and as believers, Who defines us should always come before what defines us.

As we head into the second half of this year, I pray you continue to seek Him first. That we never forgot the value Christ freely and humbly assigned us on the cross.

Be blessed, friends. God keep you safe and healthy.

April

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