What is ESSENTIAL?
In this time of bad news, in the middle of crises, we are taught to use our energy and resources on only the essentials. But what is essential in times like these? Is it one more grocery run, an extra tank of gas, identifying our assets and reducing our liabilities? What if we weather the storm but lose the real essentials of life?
Picture this… A ray of sunlight begins to peer through the dark clouds that surround our world right now. It could be a few weeks, a month or two but suddenly it looks like we have turned a corner. As we look around us we can see the damage that has been done in our economy, in our bank accounts, and in our confidence. We have been shaken and awakened to a new reality. In a few short weeks, a tiny virus has wrecked strong economies, damaged our confidence in our food supply chains, costs governments trillions of dollars and distanced humanity.
If we identify and prioritize the wrong essentials we may be in for a long, long recovery. What we consider essential right now in the crisis may actually prevent us from exiting the crises in a healthy way when it ends. Could it be that fear and anxiety have clouded our vision when we were gathering the essentials and later we discover that what we thought was essential was actually expendable and what we thought was expendable is really essential?
Several years ago, in my early 30’s I was sitting around talking with some friends. One of them raised the subject matter of recent days, an airplane crash in the high mountains where 8 of 12 people had survived. It was a week or two before they could be rescued. Some of them were injured others were healthy. As the days passed they had to make decisions about food. Snow around them provided water but they had no food. A few of them began to cannibalize the bodies of those who had died. It was shocking news. In our group discussion the question was raised would you cannibalize in order to survive and get back to your family. A few of the members of the group said they probably would in order to survive.
I was somewhat dumbfounded by what I was hearing. I started thinking, how essential am I on the planet? Is it so important that I survive that my core values are up for grabs? Would my children rather remember me as someone who would not compromise values for survival or as the dad who ate his friend? It was a bit uncomfortable to be in a group of guys that had not given deep thought to what is essential in life. The truth is humanity has not given much deep thought to essentials. Sin has preprogrammed us to think mostly about self-preservation.
As a Christian my world view includes eternity. This life on earth is not all there is to life. God wants us to spend eternity with Him. He paid the price for our sins so that we can spend eternity with Him. Submitting, serving and loving God with all my heart is essential, it is number one! As a Christian, my values include all of God’s Children. He loves every human life and gave Himself to save each one. That means it is essential that I love people too. The kind of love God demonstrated is sacrificial, patient, forgiving, merciful. That is the kind of love I am required to show as well. Self-preservation is not that kind of love.
If we expect to exit this crisis intact we better think deeply about what is essential in life. God can take care of each of us as we allow and trust Him to do so. But if we cast aside what is truly valuable we damage ourselves in such a way as to carry the wounds, hurts and suffering of this crisis with us the rest of our lives.