Feeling fatigued?
It is right about now that the fatigue starts to set in.
The novelty of lockdown has worn off, the joys of spending time at home are becoming to feel a bit more like imprisonment, we begin to miss the things we love doing outside the house, there is only so much Zoom you can handle and yet the finish line isn't quite in sight.
I've been thinking about a different sort of fatigue this week. Compassion fatigue.
This is when we become overwhelmed or desensitised to the needs of those around us. When we see them our heart is no longer moved and our hands no longer act. It's when we look the other way, we keep on walking, we tell ourselves that we've got somewhere else we need to be rather than caring for those in front of us.
In Mark chapter 6, Jesus and his disciples have just spent a long time on the road teaching and healing people and they're spent. Completely exhausted and famished from giving and giving and giving. They try to get some time away to refresh and recharge except the crowds keep on following them.
How does Jesus deal with the interruption?
Does he keep running? Does he send them away? Does he tell them that it is his day off and to bring their sick and hungry and hurting back again tomorrow?
"When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd." (Mark 6:34)
Jesus suffers no compassion fatigue. He presses on to teach them and to feed them.
Dan Ortland says this about Jesus in his excellent book, Gentle & Lowly,
“The cumulative testimony of the four Gospels is that when Jesus Christ sees the fallenness of the world all about him, his deepest impulse, his most natural instinct, is to move toward that sin and suffering, not away from it.”
What a saviour we have! When he sees our needs and the fallenness of the world around us, he doesn't retreat but he draws near!
Know that Jesus draws near to you especially in your times of need. Also, be challenged by Jesus' compassion and pray God will align your heart with his.
Grace & peace,
Andrew