You know that feeling when you should care — like, objectively, this is something tragic or unjust or clearly not OK — but instead, you just scroll past it and think about lunch?
It’s not that you’ve stopped caring. It’s more like your compassion just ran out of battery — and no one gave you the charger. Between the climate crisis, political chaos, humanitarian disasters and whatever’s trending on TikTok this week, it’s easier than ever to feel overwhelmed, shut down and vaguely guilty about it all.
And while it’s tempting to label this as burnout and call it a day, the more accurate word might be apathy. And for people of faith, that’s where it gets tricky.
“We used to interpret [burnout] as lacking faith or being unspiritual,” says Hal Donaldson, founder and CEO of Convoy of Hope. “You just needed to get on your knees and that could resolve it. Prayer is important, but the world appears more complex, with more emotional tensions than before.”
Donaldson would know. As the leader of one of the most impactful humanitarian nonprofits in the world, he’s spent decades living in the tension between compassion and collapse. His new book, What Really Matters: How to Care for Yourself and Serve a Hurting World, is part memoir, part wake-up call — and all about what happens when Christians start to go emotionally dark.
“I think [people are] more open to talking about it,” Donaldson says. “For me, my change happened when I was about 50, working really hard, feeling like if I wasn’t giving 110%, I was disappointing God. I found myself in the hospital on the verge of a heart attack.”
That personal crash forced him to reimagine how to serve in a way that was sustainable, and how to stay soft in a world that keeps hardening. And that matters more than ever. Because apathy doesn’t usually announce itself. It arrives quietly, masked as detachment. It’s “compassion fatigue,” yes, but it’s also desensitization. The kind that settles in when the brokenness of the world becomes background noise.
For many, especially young Christians who grew up hearing they were here to change the world, the weight of global need has become disillusioning. The issues — poverty, injustice, climate collapse, war — aren’t abstract. They’re real. But they’re also unending. And so people stop clicking. Stop reading. Stop praying. Not out of cruelty — out of exhaustion.
Donaldson says that’s exactly why vigilance matters. “Jesus was surrounded by needs but didn’t heal or feed everyone,” he says. “He did what His Father asked Him to do.”
In other words, you’re not responsible for everything. But you are responsible for something. “Our prayer life is critical to compassion because we need to ask the Lord if there’s something He wants to do through us,” he says. “Understand that you’re a channel of God’s blessing to the world, not your own blessing.”
The problem with apathy isn’t just that it distances people from the world’s pain. It also distances them from their own humanity. “I was paying attention to the spiritual, partly to the physical, but very little to the emotional,” Donaldson admits. “Building a great ministry touched millions, but it took an emotional toll. I wasn’t honest with myself.”
Avoiding burnout isn’t the same as avoiding responsibility. But neither is martyring yourself to every cause. The solution, Donaldson says, is honest calibration — checking your motives, your energy, your habits and your heart. “In our quest to make the world a better place and achieve, we make personal sacrifices that [God] isn’t asking us to make,” he says. “I hope people ask themselves what sacrifices they’re making and why.”
Even with the best intentions, overexposure to need can lead to something worse than fatigue: detachment.
Years ago, Donaldson interviewed Mother Teresa. He confessed that he wasn’t doing anything to help the poor. Her response stuck with him: “Everyone can do something — just do the next kind thing God puts in front of you.”
When the weight of the world feels paralyzing, small acts of obedience are a rebellion against apathy. And those small acts don’t happen by accident. They happen through intentional prayer, relationships that tell the truth and the kind of self-awareness that asks hard questions.
“A good friend asks the right questions,” Donaldson says. “Are you getting enough sleep? Are you exercising? Are you taking time away to recharge? Jesus did that, and it’s a great example.”
Serving the world doesn’t mean destroying yourself in the process. But disengaging isn’t an option either. If the church goes numb, the people who need hope the most get left behind.
Apathy is a tempting escape. But it’s not a faithful one. The gospel was never meant to be lived from a distance.
“The question to ask,” Donaldson says, “is God, where do you need me most? That question can take the ceiling off what God can do in and through your life.”
So don’t turn down the volume on the world’s pain just to stay comfortable. Let God adjust the dial. Then do the next kind thing in front of you.
