“Be happy in your hope. Do not give up when trouble comes. Do not let anything stop you from praying”
It is now the penultimate week of Lent. Our time of fasting and remembering Christ’s suffering is almost complete, and soon we will celebrate his defeat over death.
That said, no matter what day of the Church Calendar it is, it can often feel like the suffering is never ending. The 24-hour news cycles, social media, and surrounding circumstances all tend to remind us how awful things can be. And for whatever reason, it always feels like the bad stuff in these outlets is 10 times louder than the good stuff.
Apparently, there is a name for the exhaustion with constant bad news: ”Global Compassion Fatigue.“ And apparently, we’re all feeling it right now.
So if we are all prone to this exhaustion, how are we supposed to “be happy in our hope”? How are we, mere humans, supposed to “not give up when trouble comes”? We can start by taking tips from a few pages of Jesus’ playbook.
Sometimes we forget that Jesus was fully human as well as fully God, meaning that he experienced suffering and trauma in a very real way when he was on Earth. So what did he do when he experienced suffering? According to John 11:35, “Jesus wept.”
That’s it. That’s the whole verse.
When his good friend, Lazarus, died, Jesus did exactly what any of us would do in similar situations: he felt and expressed grief. He did not internalize or intellectualize his pain. He did not brush off the grief as an avoidable waste of time. He acknowledged the truth of the situation, and it was only after doing so that he was able to perform the miracle of raising his friend from the dead.
So if you are just bone-tired of the news, if you are feeling a lot of emotions because of the suffering surrounding you, know that you are in good and holy company. But also, let’s take comfort in knowing that Jesus overcame the suffering! So let’s try doing what Jesus did in times of suffering: allow ourselves to grieve (John 11:35), step away to be in God’s presence (Mark 1:35), and rest (Mark 14:13). In doing so, we can experience that hope that Jesus had; that hope in the God who caused Jesus to raise Lazarus from the dead!
For more about the Christian response to Global Compassion Fatigue, click here.
-Travis Morrill
Communications and Facilities Administrator at Friends Community Church