Warning: fuel level low?

‘I’m running on empty’. Not words you want to hear from anyone involved in pas-toral care.

Pastoral care Helen Thorne-Allenson

Not the words you want to say if you are someone who supports others in pain. But many of us have sighed that phrase. Life is busy, ministry is hard, health struggles are real and family stresses don’t ebb away just because that email saying ‘please can we meet again asap’ pops into our inbox. So what should we do? Stoically press on while suppressing that sense we have nothing to offer? Give up and leave the care to others around? Or is there a better way?