Burnout is state of emotional, physical, and mental exhaustion caused by excessive prolonged stress. It is eventually experienced at some point in life. In my experience, it has become a milestone that states the current limit of my efforts and growth.
However, it can also be defined as the consequence of growing independently from God. This has allowed me to re-evaluate my decisions and actions, giving me the rest and opportunity to further refine myself. I do not believe that burnout is simply detrimental to us, but it is one that critically defines the areas of our life that are still independent of God.
Types of burnout:
Physical burnout
Physical burnout is one of the commonest manifestations of burnout in our community. It occurs mainly when we overwork ourselves physically either by long hours or intense physical activities. Fortunately, it is easily resolved with adequate rest and recovery. The main sequalae with physical burnout often involves physical injuries, but it can also lead to mental burnout over long periods of time.
During my time in ministry, continuously going the extra mile has led to excessive depletion of my stamina. With the lack of appropriate prioritisation, I had often missed the more important opportunities I should have grasped.
Mental burnout
Mental burnout is often caused by stress to the mind from either acute situations or an accumulation of stress over long periods of time. It is often seen in stressful occupations such as medicine and law. However, it can also be found in younger demographics of students as well. Other less common cause can be from a sequalae of emotional burnout.
In my years of studying, I have experienced such burnout when I had to sacrifice my social life to achieve the academic results required to progress through my career. It was initially devastating until I found preventive measures to aid me to become more effective in my efforts.
Emotional burnout
Emotional burnout, otherwise known as compassion fatigue, is often more well-known in the Christian circle. In fact, it is more common among emotionally sensitive groups and occupations requiring compassion. It mainly involves the desensitisation of our positive feelings towards others over a long period of time. However, it can be further accelerated by the more we are emotionally involved in a situation or a person.
Unfortunately, the more obsessed we are in the need to demonstrate empathy, the more destructive it can be to our wellbeing. In my years of ministry, I have seen many people strive to reach and disciple the lost at the cost of themselves. And when the results did not match their investment, it led to strong negative feelings of anger, apathy and eventually leaving the ministry itself.
In the Old testament in the later part of Elijah’s life, there was an account of Elijah suffering from emotional burnout when he “cried out to God to end his life” (1 Kings chapter 19 verse 4). In the initial chapters we can see his passion for the ministry of building God’s Kingdom when he stood up against the injustice of Ahab and Jezebel. However, when he realised that the problem also stemmed from the hearts of Israel at the time, he gave up due to lack of visible results expected from his efforts (1 Kings chapter 19 verses 14-18).
In recent years, there has been many solutions provided regarding compassion fatigue and burnout. However, most of these tend to address the symptoms of burnout rather than the source. Most commonly these solutions revolve around mindfulness, adequate rest and focus of optimising our general health. Unfortunately, it does not include the management of the spiritual aspect involved in the various aspects of burnout.
Reflecting on the Word of God
In both my observations and experience of nearing the situation of burnout, there is a lack of adequate involvement of God. There have been too many times in which I prioritise our unnecessary items instead of spending time reflecting and immersing in the Word of God.
In the times when I have fully relied on God and acted in obedience, I have found an ease in my ministry and my steps, which accounts for one of the promises of God (Isaiah chapter 43 verses 1-3). However, in the times when I decided to act in my own accord or to interfere with God’s plan with my own thoughts, I have met with either failure or suboptimal results. It is my understanding that we should be continually reliant on God to meet our needs as mentioned in the book of Chronicles (1 Chronicles chapter 16 verse 11) and the gospel of Matthew (Matthew chapter 6 verses 33-34).
Reassessment of prayer life
In addition to spending time reading the Bible, it is also imperative to spend time with the Author of the Bible. Furthermore, Jesus mentioned that we should be reliant on Him as well (Matthew chapter 11 verses 28-30). Entering His Presence and conversing with Him has never been hard in my experience, especially after understanding our identity as God’s Children, which also defines us as being children to the King over all things. From my perspective, we should continually invite God to be part of our situations, especially those particularly stressful (Philippians chapter 4 verses 6-7).
Therefore, burnout should never be just regarded negatively but as a milestone for our growth. It should be considered a refining stone for our life that defines the areas that we need to be more reliant on God. We should continually seek after God, especially in these troubled times, so that we do not truly burn out but shine bright.