Have you ever felt like you were in a season of sitting on the bench?
I grew up playing soccer all the way up and through a division 1 collegiate career. Bench warmer was not a position I wanted. Put me in coach, like now. I wanted to be IN the game because I felt I had something to contribute. Skill, competition, and a love for the game. I still have literal dreams about playing soccer. My agility, endurance, and skill are off the charts in my dreams. No orange peels or water breaks needed. Then I wake up and feel my 40 something year old body, and know it was truly a dream. Sigh…I cannot wait to play again with a glorified body. One day again on the new earth.
Most seasons of life, we want to be in the game, not a bench warmer. We want to do something meaningful, to be needed and useful. Having purpose, feeling seen, or known for something we are good and excel at can all be good desires. And in his kindness, there are seasons God gives us to flourish and contribute in great ways.
And then there are seasons God calls us to sit a few plays out. To contribute in more unseen, subtle ways. And it can make us feel antsy, and slightly less fulfilled. This is hard. A season on the bench.
Do you feel like you are in that season? Wondering what is my purpose? Feeling stuck between what you’d like to do and what you are currently doing? Feeling a bit aimless? Unimportant?
Take heart. This is where God can do some of his best work. The warmer the bench, the more opportunity to grow: If we lean into the Lord’s help and grace.
In these seasons, truth must cover us. We are never unimportant or unseen in God’s eyes. He sees us. He loves us. As Christians our worth is not bound up in what we do, but in who’s we are. If we are in Christ, we are loved on the bench or in the game.
What if we chose instead to view this season of bench warming as an opportunity: To cheer for others, to see things we would not see if we were on the field, to be an encourager to those who need it, or simply to find contentment in the ordinary. A chance to grow, take in, rest, and learn.
Let me end with this beautiful passage from Francis A. Schaeffer’s sermon, No Little People, No Little Places:
…”First we should seek the lowest place because there it is easier to be quiet before the face of the Lord. I did not sat easy; in no place, no matter how small or humble, is it easy to be quiet before God. But it is certainly easier in some places than in others. And the little places, where I can more easily be close to God, should be my preference…
Quietness and peace before God are more important than any influence a position may seem to give, for we must stay in step with God to have the power of the Holy Spirit. If by taking a bigger place, our quietness with God is lost, then to that extent our fellowship with him is broken and we are living in the flesh, and the final results will not be as great, no matter how important the larger place may look in the eyes of other men or in our own eyes. There will always be a battle, we will always be less than perfect, but if a place is too big and too active for our present spiritual condition, then it is too big…So we must not go out beyond our depth. Take the smaller place so you have quietness before God.”
-Kerrie
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