Most mission agencies, NGO\u2019s, churches and philanthropic institutions whether representing missions, or serving orphans, providing aid for disaster relief or development programs have experienced a decline in donations. On the surface the obvious reason stated is the Global Financial Crisis. But I sense a deeper crisis, one that is sad and nonchalantly stated as \u2018compassion fatigue\u2019. And sadly, the church at large too seems comfortable enough to use this term to excuse itself from its mission.<\/p>\n
What could be the reason for such a fatigue? Reading and reflecting on Active Hope: How to face the mess we are in without going crazy by Macy and Johnstone this week offered some answers. I was particularly drawn to their reference to \u2018pain\u2019 in their four step \u201cempowerment process\u201d called \u201cthe Work That Reconnects\u201d. They suggest that \u201cpain for the world, a phrase that covers a range of feelings, including outrage, alarm, grief, guilt, dread, and despair\u201d is a \u201ccentral principle\u201d of the \u201cWork that Reconnects\u201d (p. 66)<\/p>\n
It seemed logical that if one would feel such \u2018pain for the world\u2019 it would evoke compassion. According to Macy and Johnstone, compassion, in any spiritual tradition, \u201cliterally means \u201cto suffer with\u201d, is a prized as an essential and noble capacity\u201d (p. 67) Have we lost that capacity to be compassionate? Or another honest hard question to ask ourselves is: Are with drunk with pleasure that we are numb to pain itself\u2026much less feel any pain for the world?<\/p>\n
While I might sound cynical, the plain truth is that, in this time and age we have devised more ways than ever to anesthetize our senses against pain. Without pain, our \u201ckey survival mechanism in our response to danger\u201d (p. 58), we live disconnected from reality and many of us carry on with \u2018Business as Usual\u2019 ignoring the hard facts around us unaware of impending danger. Dr. Paul Brand, a missionary doctor, who served in India among people affected with leprosy uncovers the pathology of pain and the gift that is to the human body.<\/p>\n
\u201cPain is not something that most of us would count as a blessing. However, Dr. Paul Brand\u2019s work with leprosy patients in India and the United States convinced him that pain truly is one of God\u2019s great gifts to us. In this account of his fifty-year career as a healer, Dr. Brand probes the mystery of pain and reveals its importance. As an indicator that lets us know something is wrong, pain has a value that becomes clearest in its absence. Indeed, pain is a gift that none of us want and yet none of us can do without\u201d, writes Phillip Yancey, a friend and co-author of Dr. Brand\u2019s book Pain: The Gift that Nobody Wants.<\/p>\n
I have personally witnessed the debilitating effects of a lack of pain on patients affected with leprosy. I have seen their oozing sores and rotting flesh after a minor injury to which they remain oblivious until the damage done literally costs their very lives.<\/p>\n
Macy and Johnstone contend that our numbness to feel pain for the world arises from a stunted or a lack of understanding of the concept of interconnectedness. This concept of interconnectedness is discussed in Indian sociology as \u2018Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam (Sanskrit: from \u201cvasudha\u201d, the earth; \u201civa\u201d = is as a; and \u201ckutumbakam\u201d, family;) is a Sanskrit phrase, which means \u2018all cosmos is one family\u2019.<\/p>\n
It not only means that there is interconnectedness between humans of different race but brings humans, the earth and other living creatures into a relationship with one another and the Creator. The Bible, too clearly establishes this \u2018brotherhood\/sisterhood\u2019 of all creation. The Psalmist writes \u201cThe earth is the Lord\u2019s, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it\u201d (Ps. 24:1 NIV). By virtue of God being the Creator, Head and the Father of all creation, all created life, then, exist in relation to each other. Such relationships nurture a sense of \u2018belongingness\u2019 and instill within individuals a deeper identity. In simple words, the whole is the sum total of the parts\u2026differentiated and integrated at the same time (p. 93)<\/p>\n
Therefore \u201cif one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it\u201d (I Cor. 12:26 NIV). Such belongingness would, on the one hand, inflict pain for our world in case of violations, alerting us to possible damage and on the other, evoke compassion to respond seeking appropriate solutions by virtue of reflex and not \u2018philanthropy\u2019. Living now in a state of \u201chyperindividualism\u201d (p. 91), it is not difficult then to understand why we suffer from compassion fatigue. We are disconnected, numb and schizophrenic. Therefore our responses to the \u2018outside other\u2019 stem mostly from compulsion leading to \u2018compassion fatigue\u2019 rather than from a sense of responsibility to and love for our \u2018connected self\u2019 (p. 31)<\/p>\n
Given this compassion fatigue that seems to have overtaken the church too, we as believers need to consider our motives and impetus for our acts of compassion. We need to seriously ask ourselves if we are disconnected from the sufferings of this world and the sufferings of Christ that we no longer are willing to acquaint ourselves with grief and overwhelming compassion? We should take our cue from Jesus Himself, who when He encountered human pain and suffering was \u201cmoved with compassion\u201d (Matt. 9:36 KJV) that led Him to respond with miracles.<\/p>\n
Macy, Joanna, and Chris Johnstone. Active hope: how to face the mess we\u2019re in without going crazy. Novato, Calif.: New World Library, 2012.<\/p>\n