Around this time last year I wrote on something called emotional fatigue. Emotional fatigue is a result of constant stress, continual caring for others, and anxiety over things that are happening and could happen. What happens is that our emotions, meaning our ability to care for others and have compassion, slowly decreases as we deal with all the things that comes our way everyday. We all, to some extent, deal with emotional fatigue. For a lot of us, it becomes more difficult everyday to care for people, have compassion for people, and have patience with every situation in which we find ourselves. 

What do we do with our emotional fatigue? What do we do when we have no patience with people, get angry quickly, or despair habitually because the grief of everything going on around us is too much? How do we live with this fatigue? The issue isn't how do we resolve the matter and no longer have the fatigue, but rather how do we bear this cross during this pilgrimage of life from font to grave to heaven? 

Well, the greatest way to deal with the burden of emotional fatigue is to confess that we are weak and can't handle it ourselves. We cannot carry the heavy load of carrying for all around us and ourselves as well. We can't handle the stress of the day-to-day grind, nor can we even handle little things that add up to huge weights. We must confess to God that we are weak, we can't handle it, and we need His help to suffer in this life and endure. We need the love of God, His forgiveness, His peace that surpasses all understanding. We need His songs in our heart, and His timeline. Think about that. We struggle in this life because we don't know when its all going to end. We see our struggles as having no expiration date. However, in God there is an end. There is an end to all the fatigue, the exhaustion, the stress, the anxiety, and the angst. We would say that this happens when we die, and we'd be right. However, it is not our last death that comforts us, but our first one. For St. Paul says, "Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? ⁴ We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we  too might walk in newness of life. ⁵ For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a  resurrection like his." (Romans 6:3-5).  In our Baptism, we died with Christ, and now it is no longer we who live, but Christ who lives within us. Yes, we are still sinful and yes we will still get fatigued and anxious. However, our eternal identity is not the sinner, but the saint in Jesus' blood. We are not seen by our Father as weak sinners who can't get through a week without getting exhausted, but rather as His pure, unblemished children who will live forever in heaven with Him. The only way we can suffer fatigue and endure is in the grace of our baptism and under the mercy of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. 

My friends, the only solution to our emotional fatigue is in the words of holy absolution, the very declaration of Jesus' unconditional love for us in the forgiveness of our sins. The only way we suffer everything in this life is in the knowledge that our Father in heaven does not condemn us, but saves us and welcomes us as His Children now and into all eternity. When you feel yourself getting stressed, getting exhausted, about ready to blow up on everyone, then may the Holy Spirit bring you to the solace of Jesus' mercy in the complete and incontrovertible forgiveness of your sins. You are not a terrible sinner destined for damnation, but rather a beautiful saint bound for eternity with the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit. Take heart in your fatigue my friends. We bear this burden together, and more importantly, we share the joy together of being children destined for eternity with all the saints who have gone before us. 

Peace be with you, May the devil be silenced, the world be hushed, and the Old Adam be drowned anew so that you hear only the peaceful voice of your Savior Jesus who says, "I forgive you. I love you. I claim you as My own forever," Amen.

Jesus' Sheepdog