“If I hear one more sob story, I will pull my hair out! I don’t care anymore!” 

After years of hearing loss after loss, lack of money story after story, tragedy after tragedy, my heart and my head couldn’t take it anymore. I had reached the end of my very long compassion rope. At the same time, I felt a tremendous amount of guilt for thinking and feeling it. What was wrong with me? What kind of global worker had I become? 

Compassion fatigue is the physical, emotional, and psychological impact that occurs with those who take care of others. In the global community, these cares seem never ending and can drive us to exhaustion. How do we prevent such a condition from happening? Compassion is so easily given to others, but we find it difficult to give to ourselves. There is a constant battle of what “should” be done. “I should help her with the food shopping.” “I should work on those reports.” “I should make more activities for my kids.” The endless list of “I shoulds” can be daunting. How often do we show compassion to ourselves and say, “I should take a day off and rest”? 

If we are trying to become more like Jesus, we are missing one very important action that He did regularly. There are at least six examples in the Gospels where Jesus chose solitude over people. He went away by Himself to prepare for work, to recoup from work, to grieve, to make an important decision, and to pray. He knew it was important to take care of Himself as well as those clamoring for His help. Sometimes the best course of action to get more done is to do less. Even God rested after creating everything in the universe for six days. He also inscribed the importance of rest when he made the Ten Commandments. “Remember the Sabbath, to keep it holy,” Ex. 20:8-11. 

So, we need to let go of the guilt of taking some time off and erase a few of those “I should” statements unless it’s to adjust it to “I should take a nap”. Go ahead! Show some compassion to yourself. In the end, everyone around will benefit from a rested and healthier version of you.