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We can divide our duties into two general categories: mandatory and voluntary. Mandatory duties are those bestowed on us directly by the hand of our good and gracious God. Childbearing and childrearing certainly fall in this category. If God has given you a quiver full of children, then you are called to do the good work of bringing them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. The work and worth of homemaking and home keeping, childbearing and childrearing are grievously underestimated by most of us. It is work (lots of it), and it is good work. But there are other kinds of work in this category as well. If you are called to work outside the home to provide for yourself or your family, this is also in the mandatory category. You can’t just decide it’s too hard and fail to show up for work. Lee, C. (2010). Dispositional resiliency and adjustment in Protestant pastors: A pilot study. Pastoral Psychology, 59, 631–640. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11089-010-0283-x. The Lord encourages Zerubbabel (4:7-9) by assuring him that in spite of the mountain of problems in rebuilding the temple, he would finish the task. This would confirm to all of God’ s people that He had sent His Messiah-Servant (“me” in 4:9b), in the person of the angel of the Lord, to His people. The old timers, who were disparaging this temple in comparison to the former one, should not despise the day of small things (4:10). Under God’s perfect providence (the seven eyes of the Lord, which range over the earth to watch over His people), the project will be completed. With that as an overview, let’s look at the two main principles. 1. To prevent spiritual burnout, see the importance of God’s work. Burnout is physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual exhaustion and breakdown. It is usually caused by living at too fast a pace, for too long, doing too much.
That is no insignificant task, because it involves displaying the light of God’s glory to a world that loves darkness rather than light! The apostle Paul said that “the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving, that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God” (2 Cor. 4:4). The only way that such blind people can see is if, as Paul goes on to say, God, who said, “Light shall shine out of darkness” shines into their hearts “to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.” God does that by putting His treasure in earthen vessels, “that the surpassing greatness of the power may be of God and not from ourselves” (2 Cor. 4:6-7). Our task, as God’s people, is to be His lampstand, shining forth with His glory to this sin-darkened world. Among therapists, burnout or compassion fatigue is a critical concern. As the name suggests, compassion fatigue results in a diminished ability to have empathy for one’s clients (McCollum 2015). This limit one’s effectiveness in providing a healing, therapeutic relationship. McCollum theorizes that compassion fatigue results in emotional dissonance. Due to the demands of providing services to many people during one’s work day, one’s emotional experiences override from one client to the next. Emotional dissonance occurs when there is a mismatch between one’s feeling state and one’s expression, or a carrying of sentiments from one session to the next. Therapists may end up faking interest or compassion. In this way, emotional dissonance results in increased emotional exhaustion and depersonalization. These culminate in decreased personal accomplishment. The apostles in the early church also wisely delegated some tasks in Acts 6:1-6 when they appointed deacons to help bear the burden of the ministry to the church. Jesus provides rest for our souls and boundaries for our schedules. He also gives us a community to help carry out the work He has prepared for us. The Body of Christ is meant to function as a whole, each member helping carry the others' burdens, and all resting in Christ (Galatians 6:2; Ephesians 4:16; Romans 12:6-8; 1 Corinthians 12:7, 27; Hebrews 4:9-11).Schuman, A. (2016). Preventing (and treating) physician burnout. Contemporary Pediatrics, 33(11), 39–41. He is our Heavenly Father and His perspective and His shoulders are bigger and stronger than ours. He is the one who carries the government on His shoulder ( Isaiah 9:6). Will He not so much more take care of one of His sheep as the Good Shepherd, and carry us upon His shoulders? Practical Ways the Bible Helps Us Recover from Burnout Moses would have burned out, but for the wise counsel of his father-in-law, Jethro. The story is found in Exodus 18:14-23. Moses thought he was doing the will of God by sitting as judge and hearing the people’s cases. However, Jethro rightly recognized that this was not a job for one man to handle alone. Eventually, Moses would burn out, and the people would be left unsatisfied. To avoid burnout, Moses had to accept that not every need was meant to be filled by him. God charged Moses with leadership, not with performing every duty. Jethro advised Moses to delegate the task of judging the nation to other trustworthy men. That way, the people were provided justice, others had an opportunity to participate in God’s plan, and Moses’ need for personal care was met. Shanafelt, T., Hasan, O., Dyrbye, L., Sinsky, C., Satele, D., Sloan, J., & West, C. (2015). Changes in burnout and satisfaction with work-life balance in physicians and the general US working population between 2011 and 2014. Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research, 90(12), 1600–1613. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mayocp.2015.08.023. Benedetto, M., & Swadling, M. (2014). Burnout in Australian psychologists: Correlations with work-setting, mindfulness and self-care behaviours. Psychology, Health & Medicine, 19(6), 705–715. https://doi.org/10.1080/13548506.2013.861602.
Trust Jesus, surrender and repent of trying to do it all. We are not God and we are dependent on Him for all things. He is Jehovah Jireh and graciously provides for all our needs in His timing. The Lord is referred to as “the Lord of the whole earth” (4:14). He promises Zerubbabel that what He is doing will get done in spite of the mountains of opposition. God’s purpose is that the knowledge of His glory will fill the earth as the waters cover the sea (Hab. 2:14). There will be some from every tribe, tongue, people, and nation around God’s throne (Rev. 5:9). We have the great privilege of joining in God’s worldwide cause that will certainly prevail! We are His lampstand, the light of the world (Matt. 5:14). (3) God’s work is the work of revealing God in and through us. Beebe, R. S. (2007). Predicting burnout, conflict management style, and turnover among clergy. Journal of Career Assessment, 15, 257–275. https://doi.org/10.1177/1069072706298157.
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A woman asked D.L. Moody once, “Why do you talk so often about the need for being filled with the Holy Spirit. You always are stressing the need to be filled again and again. Why isn’t once enough to be filled?” Moody replied, “I leak.”
Testa, D., & Sangganjanavanich, V. (2016). Contribution of mindfulness and emotional intelligence to burnout among counseling interns. Counselor Education & Supervision, 55, 95–108. https://doi.org/10.1002/ceas.12035. Grabovac, A. D., Lau, M. A., & Willett, B. R. (2011). Mechanisms of mindfulness: A Buddhist psychological model. Mindfulness, 2, 154–166. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12671-011-0054-5. Stevens, R. P. (1999). The other six days: Vocation, work, and ministry in biblical perspective. Grand Rapids: Eerdman’s. From CEOs to nurses, to doctors, teachers, entrepreneurs, journalists, social workers, academics, creatives... even yoga teachers are at it. If this is your first time learning about the effects of stress on a human body this is a deep dive into the medical aspects…a great crash course for first timers in easy to understand format. Essential for library shelves. – NetGalleyResearch confirms that chronic stress can cause physical illness too. Sheldon Cohen, a professor of psychology at Pittsburgh’s Carnegie Mellon University says, “We are just beginning to understand the ways that stress influences a wide range of diseases of aging, including heart disease, metabolic syndrome, type 2 diabetes and certain types of disability, even early death.”
As someone who previously knew very little about burnout this book is invaluable. Not only is there thorough description and case studies that describe the common signs, symptoms and stages, more importantly there are practical steps, ideas, recipes and support making self-help through burnout or pre-burnout accessible for everyone. As a busy mum of three and owner of two businesses, I found this book enlightening, honest and easily digestible! This book makes the science behind burnout accessible for all and most importantly gives the tools and techniques to effectively prevent, or work through it. Your body will thank you for reading it! Carolyn Whitehead, Co-founder, Leading Ladies in Business, and Founder of Beautiful New Beginnings CIC When we are tired, we can be tempted to think we didn’t get much accomplished. We may feel discouraged or trapped and worry that there is no one to help us or take over for us. We may think our work is all in vain because we’re going to have to do it all over again tomorrow. Or we might be disappointed because we didn’t finish everything on our list. And then there’s that friend who is vacationing in Hawaii. How does she get off so easily? How “together” must we be (as earthen vessels) to display God’s glory? Is there a difference between imperfection and clinging to known sin?
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Reid, R. J., Coleman, K., Johnson, E., Fishman, P., Hsu, C., Soman, M., & … Larson, E. (2010). The group health medical home at year two: Cost savings, higher patient satisfaction, and less burnout for providers. Health Affairs, 29(5), 835–843. https://doi.org/10.1377/hithaff.2010.0158. We hear a lot today about stress and burnout, especially in ministry. It’s a complex problem that includes many factors that I cannot delve into in this message. Sometimes burnout stems from faulty time management or from being over-committed. Sometimes it results from trying to do it all yourself and not delegating properly. Our text does not deal with these aspects of the problem, nor will I. But it does give us two principles that offer significant help in preventing spiritual burnout:
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