Feeling Expendable

 

 

I've been experiencing job insecurity for the past couple of years now, and I'm not alone.  Everywhere I turn, someone has lost a job or fears losing a job.  It's a sobering reality and a humbling one...especially after a recent conversation with a friend who is experiencing the same reality.

During our conversation together, I talked about my job-related concerns: worries about my competitiveness, fears that they won't consider all of my skills and qualifications when making decisions on who to retain, misgivings about the whole selection process for jobs.  I told him that I was feeling expendable, like someone who would be missed for a few days or weeks and then forgotten.  My friend turned to me and said that he felt the same way...expendable, powerless, and worthless.

At that moment, reality set in.  From the world's standpoint, we're all expendable.  They can find someone else to do my job.  I'm not irreplaceable, no matter how much I wish it were so.  I'm not the only person who can do my job.  I may not even be the best person to do my job.

Yet, from other perspectives, I am absolutely irreplaceable.  I am a husband, a father, a son, an uncle, and a best friend.  My family and friends would go on missing me for more than a few days or months or years.  I am not worthless in their eyes.  They love me dearly, and I love them dearly.

...and that's not all...

My heavenly Father loves me dearly...more than I can possibly fathom.  He created me.  He watches over me.  He holds me in His hand.  And, He will carry me home one day to live eternally with Him.  No matter what happens to me in this life, and no matter what the world may throw at me, I am safe in His loving arms.  I'm not insignificant to my Father.  He has a plan for me, a purpose, and amid life's unpredictable storms, He sees me and will take care of me.  I can place my trust in Him.

Tonight, my evening prayer is the hymn that brought me comfort in the midst of Marine Corps Boot Camp on Parris Island so many years ago and continues to bring me comfort more than 20 years later: "Eternal Father, Strong to Save." 

Eternal Father, strong to save,

Whose arm hath bound the restless wave,

Who bidd'st the mighty ocean deep

Its own appointed limits keep;

Oh, hear us when we cry to Thee,

For those in peril on the sea!

O Christ! Whose voice the waters heard

And hushed their raging at Thy word,

Who walkedst on the foaming deep,

And calm amidst its rage didst sleep;

Oh, hear us when we cry to Thee,

For those in peril on the sea!

Most Holy Spirit! Who didst brood

Upon the chaos dark and rude,

And bid its angry tumult cease,

And give, for wild confusion, peace;

Oh, hear us when we cry to Thee,

For those in peril on the sea!

O Trinity of love and power!

Our brethren shield in danger's hour;

From rock and tempest, fire and foe,

Protect them wheresoe'er they go;

Thus evermore shall rise to Thee

Glad hymns of praise from land and sea.