Zeal and Burnout

I've been reading a little book given to pastors at the last conference I attended.  It is titled Zeal Without Burnout by Christopher Ash.  He uses a term I think is very wise to apply to our lives:  sustainable.  We recognise the wisdom of sustainability in energy production and use, in forestry, fishing, and farming.  If we over-fish or cut down trees without replenishment, it will only be a matter of time until alavailable resources are consumed.  These same sensible considerations ought to be applied to our approach to family, work, Christian ministry, and our lives in general.

When I first became a mechanical insulator, I was given a physically taxing job in Los Angeles - when I was living in San Diego!  The foreman told me, "If you can handle this job, you can do anything."  My hours at the Chevron refinery began at 6am (all had to be at the gate by 5:45am for a ride into the refinery) and concluded at 6pm 7 days a week.  I had to rise at 3:30am to pick up my brother and so began a long day.  For a majority of the day we worked in hot, uncomfortable conditions removing asbestos in containment wearing full-face respirators.  I would arrive home after 8pm, eat dinner, visit with my sweet wife for an hour, and go to bed exhausted.

Thankfully, this job lasted only six or seven weeks.  It felt like it lasted a year!  I was grateful when the refinery restricted our hours to 6 days and 10 hours a day.  After almost two months of that job it was clear to my brother and I it was simply not sustainable.  We were wearing out and when an opportunity came to work locally we jumped at the chance.  The human body has physical limits, and it is sometimes easier for me to tell when I am physically exhausted than mentally and emotionally spent.  It doesn't mean it is easy for me to admit it! :)  Yesterday I worked in the yard a bit too long and my body reminded me all evening I am not 25 years old anymore.  Burnout is a bit more tricky to discern than sore muscles and a sunburn.  Christopher Ash wrote concerning avoiding burnout,

"It is good to develop a healthy self-knowledge about what energizes us - what the Holy Spirit uses to bring us that inward renewal.  But these activities will never be enough on their own to bring us true spiritual renewal.  Each of us needs our personal devotional times with God:  times of Bible reading and prayer, times to be glad to be in Christ, times of thoughtful reflection before the Lord:  times to be refreshed.  It is not selfish to guard those times, any more than it is selfish for a firefighter to take a break before heading back into the fire.  Indeed, if we do not give space for renewal, there will soon be nothing left of us to give." (Ash, Christopher. Zeal without Burnout. Good Book, 2016. 77. Print.)

How important it is to know what God has called us to do and respect our limitations.  We should do all we do heartily as unto the LORD, but not to the point where our lives and ministry cannot be sustained healthily.  God is the One who sustains us, for without Him we can do nothing.  We can do all things through Jesus Christ, but it is not for us to do everything.  Let us be about the LORD's business and walk circumspectly, knowing He is the One who will accomplish all.  There is a way we can have so much responsibility we cease to be responsible concerning our bodies, family, and ministry.  Cessation of activity alone does not cancel burnout, but resting in Christ and waiting on the LORD brings renewal.  A break from the grind may be what God has for you, and may obedience to take a break as an act of faith in God be bountifully rewarded with increased fruitfulness.