Tears in the Wake of the Storms

I was watching the news last night and saw story after story of disaster and dilemma.  Somewhere along the line I started to tear up.  I'm not sure if it was the pictures of strangers rescuing folks trapped by the flood waters of Florence.  Or the police officer who had tried to rescue a man caught under a car due to the gas line explosions in the Boston are, even while his own home was going up in flames.  It may have been the follow-up story to the ongoing post-Maria crisis in Puerto Rico, or the story about the typhoon in the Philippines. Whatever the case, I had reached a point where I just could not hold back the tears.

I've heard it referred to as compassion fatigue.  Getting so worn down by disasters, natural and otherwise, that you just can't handle one more story, one more disaster.  And maybe that was it.  Even though I was only tangentially impacted by the stories above (I had to cut short a retreat to fly home a day early due to Florence) I couldn't help but remember my own experiences of Hurricane Irma, 9/11 and other calamities I have faced.

But the more I thought about it, the more I realized the tears were primarily related to frustration. We human beings have a lot with which we must cope.  Things that are (basically) out of our control.  Hurricanes, floods, earthquakes, volcano eruptions.  Why then, do we insist on making more problems for ourselves by perpetuating the injustices of violence, racism, sexism, homophobia, environmental degradation and economic disparity?  I know, because, as the old catechism puts it "we have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God." But that's too easy an excuse.  We can't help ourselves?  It's in our nature?  I'm sorry, that's just nonsense.  We can.  We can choose to ally ourselves with love, with peace, with justice.  We can choose to ask God to fill us with whatever we need to do the right things.  I'm not saying it's easy.  I'm just saying it is possible.

Thanks for letting me vent.  Now, on to working for the change I want to see.  So help me God.