Compassion Fatigue

There is a kind of battle‑fatigue known to men and women on the service fronts of the world. It is characterized by shock, lack of feeling, imperviousness to anything. After so much noise of shells and bombs, so much plodding through mud and weeds, they develop a kind of wall of insensitivity.

Sometimes I get that way too. I get tired of doing good, being helpful, trying to be sensitive to the hurts of the world. We hear so much about evil in our world, drugs, deception in high places, terrorism, starvation, cruel and vicious deaths. And I begin to build up a kind of compassion‑fatigue. What's the use? How can anybody do anything for this crazy, mixed‑up world?

There is a story about a ball team with a rookie playing right field. When the batter hit a Texas leaguer his way, sure enough, it squirted through his hands. The next pop up, he lost in the sun. Then followed a nice direct hit, and he fell over his shoe laces, trying to get it.

The manager got him back on the bench and looking down on him said, "Son, let me show you how to play right field." So, as might be expected, the first hit went bounding between his legs. A second hit bounced off his mitt like rubber, and the next pop‑up coming his way, he lost in the sun.

Storming back to the bench, he looked down at the rookie and said, "Man, you've messed up that right field so bad, nobody can play it anymore."

Not so with God. His grace is greater than all of our bobbling of the ball. Nobody can mess up life so bad, that God's compassion is not able to redeem it. This is the story of how man's sinfulness is met by Divine Grace. His love is never dimmed. And so, I register myself among the sinners, grateful that the love of God is never diminished, that His compassion is never fatigued, and that there is room in His heart for you and me.