Sometimes I can’t care anymore.
I don’t like admitting that.
It feels wrong,
and ugly.
People in my line of work throw around terms like
“compassion fatigue”
which used to be called “burnout” but that’s passé.
Nobody burns out any longer
they simply need a plan for improved self-care.
But, caring for the people with whom I work
is not the issue.
It’s caring for the world that’s testing my emotional resilience.
I mean,
how many tragedies can a person invest in emotionally
even if the media
shows the faces, tells the stories, finds a local connection, presents it with enhanced graphics and poignant soundtracks?
If every channel, every news program, every headline and magazine
joins the assault
as if they colluded with the perpetrators of the
tragedies
to insure the maximum number of people
were victimized by the crime
if not directly, physically,
then emotionally, mentally, spiritually
through the media offensive of their terrible crime,
then how can any of us escape with our hearts still soft and willing to bleed?
even if the numbers are high
and the ages are low
and the victims are so innocent
and the villains are so evil
It’s as if there is a plan
to desensitize us all;
to petrify our hearts so they become so hard
that when the next part of the plan is enacted,
the part in which we must participate or remain silent,
we will engage like lemmings
and the human race will follow the piper
out of the city and off the cliff
with barely a protest.
When I opened the news page on the Internet yesterday,
a thought hit me like a revelation:
I am not God.
When God sees the headlines of the entire world at once,
He is not overwhelmed,
He doesn’t suffer from compassion fatigue,
He is wise, just, holy, and able to act
in the face of bombings, missing children, governments testing nuclear weapons, celebrity’s divorcing, human trafficking, corrupt politicians, and questions of cultural morals
He is undaunted
able to love, to act, to remain open-hearted and faithful.
I need Him.
And I need to remember that I am not Him.
It is more important that I open my Bible
than that I open my laptop.
It’s more important that I listen to His voice
than the unending radio commentary.
It is good to be informed
but I believe there is some evil force at work that hijacks the airwaves to maximize the body/soul count of every evil perpetrated on the earth
and that plan will work if we don’t resist.
God promises us, through the prophet Ezekiel, that He has what our hearts need:
“I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.” (Ezekiel 36:26)
And I have this hope that when I run out of love,
I can go to the source of all love and be restored.
John reminds us, “Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God.” I John 4:7a
It isn’t wrong to watch the news
but it’s easy to be so sucked in so that
every moment is filled with headlines from earth
and we miss the incoming communiqués
from heaven.
Yesterday, I held a three-year-old in my lap.
His little world has been destroyed, rearranged -his parents torn from him and he from them.
He’s safer now, healthier, calmer
but a piece of his little heart bleeds.
He climbed into my lap and laid his head on my chest for a few long precious minutes
and we were both okay for that moment.
I can’t fix his world
but we’ve touched each other’s lives
and truly cared.
I think that was a headline in heaven yesterday
and so was every act of love or kindness or patience or grace or mercy you initiated or experienced.
Guard your hearts, loved ones. There is a plot afoot to turn them to stone
but there is an antidote – avail yourself of it today.
Hearts of stone don’t get hurt
but neither can they dare to love in a dangerous world.
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A friend of mine refers to the news as “the digest of the devil’s daily victories”.
That is a great quote and so appropriate.
Wonderful words of the Love only God can give by grace. Added to this feat of God’s love, we must go forward with the reformation, retraction and reconciliation of these (religious) terrorists who act for God in the ignorance Jesus Christ predicted centuries ago. And, the foundation for this reformation and retraction is been laid down by the divine prophetic counsel of the just in the book titled “CROSSROADS: The Paradox Of The War Against Terrorism” published by amazon.com or contact the author for more …
There’s a fine line between being informed and being sucked in and we can only find that line through consistent prayer.
In the heart of that little boy you held will be the loving memory of a woman who cared, who loved him even though she wasn’t his mother. Just as the memory of him lighting up when he saw you, running to you and sitting safely in your lap will remain with you as a gift from God. You touched a little boy’s life with love and comfort–straight from God through you to him. What a blessed memory you’ll carry. Life is hard but love softens the edges and makes it possible to continue. God is love. MOMMA
🙂
My thoughts exactly I pray for wisdom and I pray for ALL involved in the tragedy I give it to God I cannot keep watching TV or I will be useless
We want to care about everything, but it’s hard when we’re bombarded by so much stuff, especially w/the media. We have to strike a balance between knowing enough to be informed and helpful on the one hand and becoming overwhelmed and even cynical on the other.
I agree with Anonymous. You touched the little boy that day in ways you may never know.