Availability by Robert J. Wicks

Author:Robert J. Wicks [Wicks, Robert J.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Ave Maria Press
Published: 2015-11-19T23:00:00+00:00

6

Their Pain, Our Fears

[In walking the streets of Calcutta] the poverty so enraged me that I wanted to scream at God. Then I came to a painful realization. In the suffering of the poor, God was screaming at me.

—Jack Nelson, Hunger for Justice

I don’t know what your destiny will be,

but one thing I know,

the only ones among you who will be really happy

are those who have sought and found how to serve.

—Albert Schweitzer

The literature of the early 1980s clearly reflected the differences between ordinary concern and Christian compassion. Secular psychology and psychiatry journals and books spoke pointedly about the phenomenon of “burnout.” The term became so overused that even those feeling mentally fatigued from reaching out to others were sick of hearing the word.

Burnout literature stressed how helpers were prone to personal depletion of enthusiasm and gave ways to avoid advanced stages of stress and depression that might be a partial result of intense involvement in helping activities. As mentioned in the chapter “Failure and Forgiveness,” this information was quite helpful but it didn’t go far enough. It lacked an appreciation of the importance of a sound theology of hope. Such a theology is not merely an extra resource for those dedicated to reaching out to others in pain; it is essential for our very survival!

When hope based on the resurrection of Christ is not present, discouragement and despair appear and inevitably fan our feelings of futility. In such instances, we can misunderstand those in need of our help and can fail to see accurately our role with those under various forms of stress and injustice. We not only run the risk of failing to see God’s role in saving the world but also risk not seeing our own solidarity with the poor, the distressed, and the troubled. Instead, we see ourselves as “saviors.” Everything is on our shoulders. We are “successful missionaries” reaching down to the sea of the needy. Is it any wonder that many of us shy away from helping? If we see our own visible results and inner feelings of accomplishment with the “less fortunate” as the only yardstick for our commitment to Christian helping, our continual involvement in daily ministry is doomed from its inception.

Fortunately, in addition to the secular material on burnout that helps us learn how to avoid unnecessary martyrdom through employing some psychological common sense, books which rely on a theology of hope and failure are also available to help Christians gain a perspective of the helping process and the attitude that is at its heart. The following quote from Compassion is one clear example of this:

Here we are touching the profound spiritual truth that service is an expression of the search for God and not just of the desire to bring about social change. This is open to all sorts of misunderstandings, but its truth is confirmed in the lives of those for whom service is a constant and uninterrupted concern. As long as the help we offer to others is motivated primarily by the changes we may accomplish, our service cannot last long.

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