Fifth Sunday after Epiphany
Isaiah 40:21-31, I Corinthians 9:16-23, Mark 1:29-39
February 5, 2012
helping profession (plural helping professions)
<!--[if !supportLists]-->1. <!--[endif]-->A profession that nurtures the growth of or addresses the problems of a person's physical, psychological, intellectual, emotional or spiritual well-being, including medicine, nursing, psychotherapy, psychological counseling, social work, education, life coaching and ministry. Retrieved from wiktionary
That’s the strict definition of a helping profession. If we want to open it up a bit, we can include any work or activity that is done to help make the lives of others better. That could also include things you don’t get paid for, like being a husband or wife, a parent or a child, or a neighbor or friend.
So do you know what the biggest danger faced by helping professionals can be? That would be “burnout”. Are you familiar with it?
Virginia Duffy in an article entitled, “Beating Burnout in Helping Professionals” lists some signs of burnout:
- Avoiding or rushing through care situations
- Rigid rules and "by the book" approaches
- Dehumanizing others
- Anger and emotional outbursts
- Increasingly cynical attitudes
- Boredom
- Stress from work interfering in social and family relationship
- Physical symptoms of stress such as headaches sleep disturbance and tiredness.
I won’t ask. I’ll let you decide if you have any symptoms. Helping people can be draining.
Virginia Duffy also lists some things you can do to avoid burnout:
- Recognize and allow your own feelings. Take care of you, it will relieve some of your stress and allow you to better take care of others
- Try understanding and treating yourself with the same care you give to others
- Allow yourself to say no.
- Do not expect all your feelings of self-esteem to come from your work.
- Develop outside interests that have nothing to do with helping others!
- Try to avoid over-identification with those you help
- Develop relationships outside of work where you can talk about your feelings
- Practice stress reduction techniques (exercise, relaxation, meditation, distraction)
Oh, and there is one more thing that can be done, perhaps the most important thing. We might want to develop and maintain a strong connection to God.
Today’s Gospel lesson finds Jesus in a helping situation. It starts with Peter’s sick mother-in-law. She is in bed with a fever. Jesus heals her. The mother-in-law becomes a role mode. After being healed she gets up and serves.
People flock to Jesus. The lesson says the whole city of Capernaum gathers at the door of Peter’s house. Jesus heals and casts out demons until everyone has gone home. That would tend to make a guy pretty popular, wouldn’t it?
Then, in the morning, Jesus is gone. He got up before daybreak and found a deserted place to pray. Instead of waiting until morning and basking in the glory of his accomplishments the night before, he’s gone out to make a connection with God the Father. His primary objective is to be connected with powers of the heavenly kingdom instead of validation from the earthly world. When he’s found, he tells his disciples there is more work to do. They need to move on.
So what kind of results did Jesus get? The demands were brutal and the pressure on him was intense. For awhile it seemed like he might be making a difference and changing people’s lives. His disciples must have been encouraged. But things went south. Powerful people opposed Jesus. Support dwindled. He was harassed and finally arrested. EVERYONE deserted him. He was tortured and killed. I guess that would be one step beyond burnout.
But up until the end he stayed connected to the Father and the Father did not failed him. Jesus was raised from the dead. And Jesus became the ultimate helping professional giving what no one else can give. Jesus gives us forgiveness and life and the promise of love that never ends. He wants us to share it.
We want to make a difference, don’t we? We want to think we might be helping change the world for the better, right? But is that what we’re asked to do? Isn’t it really God who makes the world different? Isn’t it God who can really change things?
Our first lesson reminds us where our strength comes from. Only with God can we find the strength to continue in times of weariness and exhaustion. Being connected to God is the real remedy for burnout.
St. Paul bites off a big commitment in the second lesson. He’s determined to do whatever he can to get people and keep people connected to God. He’s not trying to change the world. He’s not trying to make a difference in their lives. He wants them to know the Gospel. He wants them to have the gifts of forgiveness and life and love. That’s what will really help change the world and make a difference in the lives of others. Those priceless things connect us to God and can connect us to each other.
God makes it clear that he wants us to help others. He wants us all to be helping professionals. But he never promises we’ll see that it makes a difference. He never promises we’ll notice a change in the world. But we can trust that by helping others and sharing God’s love, we will be helping God make a difference in the lives of others and that God’s love is what has and will continue to change the world. AMEN
