Do you feel burned out?
Christ has a few words for you:
Matthew 11:28-29 (MSG)
“Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace.
He restores your soul with the rhythms of grace.
Burned out? Got compassion fatigue?
Feel like there’s just too much?
Seems like suffering world’s in league
to demand your sympathy-touch?
Well, GOSH, I see the issue,
you’ve become a mess so hot,
so let me fetch a tissue
while some villagers get shot.
There’s no day off from evil,
no personal days for pain.
Does the cross upon that steeple
mean Jesus died in vain?
Man up and fight, get bloody real
for it doesn’t matter how you feel.
After posting this, it occurred to me that I may come across as a tad harsh. This is not something I would wish to understate, as our privilege makes our lives forfeit, and my ethos comes from Housman:
These, in the day when heaven was falling,
The hour when earth’s foundations fled,
Followed their mercenary calling
And took their wages and are dead.
Their shoulders held the sky suspended;
They stood, and earth’s foundations stay;
What God abandoned, these defended,
And saved the sum of things for pay.
Too often, we seem to think God owes us because we’ve been faithful. As you poetically point out, Andrew, we’re here because of the faithfulness of those who came before–with Christ at the head of the line. We owe more than we can ever repay.