The Hawkeye Syndrome
By Danny Thompson
 
    M.A.S.H. was a favorite show of mine when I was young.  I guess that I liked the humor.  M.A.S.H. humor was quite cynical which you would expect from a show based on a war and whose theme song was "Suicide is Painless."  I have not watched it for years because I finally got tired of their making  a mockery of the priest who was depicted as a nice but naive fool.  It seemed to me that the message was that all religious people are that way and that did not set well with me.
    I guess that I caught part of an episode a couple of years ago and something else about it bothered me but I was not sure what it was.  I finally figured it out tonight.  I was driving home from the elders meeting (which is not at all significant to the thought that follows but it gives a little color).  I do my best thinking in the car I suppose (especially since some punk ripped off my radio and I now have a drive home that is long enough that my mind has to occupy itself).  Anyway, the thing that bothered  me about the attitude of the main characters of M.A.S.H. was that they had no sense of their purpose in the battle.  Hawkeye and B.J. ( or Trapper John in the early days) did not believe in the cause of the war, so they basically saw their role as "fixing guys so that they can go back to the front to get shot again."  While to some degree I understand their disinterest in being in a war on the other side of the world, a soldier's job is to do what he is commanded to do.
    My point (and I do have one) is that in the course of personal ministry it is easy to get what I will call the "Hawkeye Syndrome."  You deal with so  many casualties that you lose any sense of perspective on the cause that you are part of and become cynical.  The pitfall for anyone who cares about people is that they can become so involved with the wounded that they forget the reason they are what they are.  They forget that there is a cause worth fighting for.
    There is no doubt that our enemy is evil.  There is no doubt that our enemy is aggressive.  There is no doubt that our battle is right.  There is no doubt that our commanding officer knows what is best.  The war is worth fighting...don't lose heart.

                                    Dano (sometimes a doctor, but more often a patient)
 

A bit of advice from an old soldier and surgeon:
"Live in peace with each other.  And we urge you, brothers, warn those who are idle, encourage the timid, help the weak, be patient with everyone.  Make sure that nobody pays back wrong for wrong, but always try to be kind to each other and to everyone else.  Be joyful always.  Pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus."  (1 Thessalonians 5:14-18)
 
 
 
 

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