The Ear Ache (Compassion Fatigue)
“The One planting the ear, can He not hear? Or the One forming the eye, can He not see?”
Psalm 94:9
One of my first childhood memories was me, lying on the back seat of my parents’ car, on the way to see the doctor. I was screaming and crying, with a hot water bottle under my ear. I was in PAIN!
I was bleeding from that ear.
I remember seeing flecks of blood on the hot water bottle, as well as in my ear later.
Upon seeing the doctor, my mother was told that my eardrum had ruptured. But it was a “good” thing, for now I could hear better than I did before.
“And he said unto them, ‘He that hath ears to hear, let him hear.’”
Mark 4:9
I, like a lot of kids out there, kept getting annoying ear infections… until this last, eardrum-breaking one.
After that, I was in the clear.
Cut to years later. I discovered the famous comedienne, Gilda Radner.
“I’m so stuffed, I cannot hear.”
Gilda Radner
She quipped this statement, describing her struggle with Bulimia, and its torturous binge/purge cycles.
Indeed, she was plagued with both eating disorders, and Ovarian Cancer. The cancer diagnosis, sadly, claimed her life.
And, upon my 2017 breast cancer diagnosis, I felt a kindred connection as with someone who was battling the dreaded disease.
I also connected with her weariness.
It extended beyond exhaustion, attached to a cancer diagnosis.
For me, it extends to the enormity of life, itself.
And here is where I collided with a situation called, “Compassion Fatigue.”
Yes, this is a real thing.
Compassion Fatigue…
According to “Psychology Today,” this form of depletion and exhaustion is defined in the following manner:
“People whose professions lead to prolonged exposure to other people's trauma can be vulnerable to what's known as compassion fatigue, a state of intense emotional disconnection, exhaustion, and distress that's also known as secondary or vicarious trauma. People experiencing compassion fatigue can struggle with acute symptoms that put their physical and mental health at risk, making them wary of giving and caring.”
Yes, it heavily focuses on the caregivers, those looking out for the needs and the issues of others, like therapists, social workers, doctors, and nurses.
But, come on, it covers all of us, to some degree, at one point and time in our lives, right?
“For time and chance will happen to them all.”
Ecclesiastes 9:11
Burn out. Fatigue. Weariness. The opposition against us to keep going.
It affects our capacity to hear anything outside of the problem, the crisis, the exhaustion, and the worry.
It challenges our hearing.
Like what Gilda Radner said, we are so stuffed (with the issues of life), we cannot hear.
“The hearing ear, and the seeing eye, Elohim hath made even both of them.”
Proverbs 20:12
You may not feel like you are hearing anything from The Most High right now.
You may feel like you are cut off.
You may feel like you are disqualified.
You may feel hopeless.
You are not.
It is precisely here where you- where WE- are beckoned to come closer to Him, to experience hearing Him better.
Come to Me…
“Come to Me, all those toiling and burdened, and I will give you rest.”
Matthew 11:28
To experience His rest from the spiritual, mental, emotional, physical, financial, relational, and circumstantial compassion fatigue, the fatigue that asserts we have absolutely nothing left to give to anyone, ourselves included.
We are in the red.
“Come to Me, all those toiling and burdened, and I will give you rest.”
Matthew 11:28
What are you hearing right now?
Danger? Threat? Peril? Disease? Destruction? Pain? Hopelessness?
Our Savior, Our Shepherd, is inviting us to come to Him, and hear differently.
Hear Him at work in our lives.
Let’s pray.
Abba,
I come to You, through Our Shepherd.
Your only begotten Son, Our Savior, יֵשׁוּעַ.
You know how exhausted I am right now.
You know how I cannot hear anything else except the worst-case scenarios and struggles.
You know how I feel I cannot hear You.
Yet You are speaking; You ARE speaking to me.
I need You to hold me and my life circumstances.
Forgive me for not turning to You.
Forgive me for going in other directions that only create more problems.
I recognize, right now, that I need Your Help.
Help me to hear You, to rest in You.
Take over this entire situation, known as my life.
Thank You.
Renew my strength; replace the depletion with more of You and Your Spirit.
I receive it all, by faith, right now.
Thank You for speaking to me, for hearing me, and for drawing me closer to You.
I come closer right now.
Amen.
Copyright © 2026 by Sheryle Cruse
