Have you ever felt burnout? The internet is full of helpful information of what Burnout symptoms might be, for instance:

Physical symptoms: headaches, stomachaches/intestinal issues, fatigue, frequent illness, changes in appetite/sleep.

Emotional symptoms: helplessness, cynicism, sense of failure or self-doubt, decreased satisfaction, feeling detached or alone in the world, loss of motivation.

Behavioural signs: reduced performance in everyday tasks, withdrawal or isolation, procrastination, outbursts, using substances to cope.

According to an American study, 94% of workers have experienced at least one symptom of burnout in the past year. It’s safe to say that burnout is on the rise.

So what do we do when we start to feel burnout? Let me share a scripture that I have found helpful taken from Isaiah 40:28:

Do you not know?
    Have you not heard?
The Lord is the everlasting God,
    the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He will not grow tired or weary,
    and his understanding no one can fathom.

This scripture tells us that God doesn’t get tired. God has never learned anything new. God has never said, “I didn’t know that,” or “Oh that didn’t occur to me.” God has never felt exhausted, never felt fatigued, and God has never needed a nap.

So what that means is that you and I have permission to be tired. We have permission to be exhausted. We have permission to throw up our hands and say, “I don’t know what to do”. We have permission to stop and rest.

The problem isn’t that we have felt burnout, the problem is that we may not have known what to do when we felt that way.

Pretending is harmful. Pretending that we are okay and pushing through will only make matters worse. However, tending is preventing.

This Fall and particularly the past several weeks have been a bit frenetic for me. It feels as though there has been more of everything. More meetings, more needs to be met — both personally and in ministry, more hurt and anxiety with the people that I meet. On Friday morning, I woke up tired and anxious… my schedule was light that day and I had a 24 hour window with nothing pressing… so, I decided to run away from home.

I packed a little bag, got in the car and drove to the cottage. Brian was a bit perplexed since I have never (in our 24 years of having a cottage) stayed overnight there by myself.

During my two hour drive up north, I listened to praise music, I cried, I prayed, and then eventually I began to sing along. When I got to the cottage, I lit a fire in the fireplace and literally sat —no phone, no music, no tv, I just sat like a zombie for an hour (maybe more) — and allowed God to refuel me. I asked God to give me strength, and wisdom. I asked God to calm my anxious heart, and to help me put things in perspective. I ate well, slept well and in the morning I woke up refreshed. I felt as though God had done a mini miracle in my spirit.

This experience reminded me of the Burning Bush. Do you know that story in the Old Testament? The bush that was on fire but never consumed. It tells us we can be on fire and won’t burnout if we are not the ones supplying the fuel. The bush wasn’t supplying the fuel, God’s Holy Spirit was! If we let God supply the fuel for our fire, sure we will feel tired/exhausted at times but like the bush, we won’t burn out!!