Essential or Non-Essential
Has it dawned on you yet that all of our roles may be essential? Have you determined yet that all of us may be deeply essential to one another– friend or foe? Our roles in which we serve are not what deems us essential or non-essential. How arrogant a thought. How very first-world of us.
I will not be the first to quote the loveable and logical, Mike Rowe, “You can’t just call somebody essential without implicitly suggesting that half the workforce is not essential.” I get that Mike is distinctly pointing out the logic (or lack thereof) of politicians making the determination that half of the work force is either essential or non-essential laborers.
But is it the way in which we labor that truly determines our value?
I am not convinced. Our occupation certainly pins down our determination, hard-work, and tenacity. It typically strengthens our knowledge and commitment to a thing and gives a contribution to a society. But our value? Behind every stripped-away mask is quite simply a face. Behind every positional role is an actual person.
Masking
This masked generation cannot breathe, cannot think, cannot act outside of the will, pressures, and influence of the other. We are subject to the woes and weightiness of the other. Forget personal responsibility; your responsibility lies in the logic of everyone else despite how logical or illogical. We lose objectivity in the fog of subjectivity. Everything is subjective until it is not. There is no one unbiased–no not one.
When we remove the masks, we find people underneath them.
This is one of the biggest challenges of the many problems we face today. Clearly, we have always hidden behind masks. We just do it in a much more robust way now. The issue is no longer the virus that spreads externally, it is the virus that continues to spread, (just more rapidly), within the very fabric of the human heart. What are you doing to stop the virus? What are you doing to slow the spread? How are you managing the disease within you, not just around you? Many people seem to be finger-pointing at those with or without masks, but the virus that is spreading has nothing to do with the ineffective fabric upon your face. Do you not see that the most inherent problem is the sickness of sin that lies within you, just waiting to spread its cursed disease? You cannot stop this damaging curse, but you can certainly change your response to it.
We are all essential.
Lies
Unfortunately, we have begun to see ourselves as dispensable because of the lies we have been told.
But Jesus has another message for us–one that is full of Truth and for your good, “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full” John 10:10. The problem may be that we are either full of that which does not satisfy or empty of the things that bring true fullness.