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Burnout or the feeling of exhaustion is something I have experienced a couple of times and most people do, we just have a way of going on with life while running on empty.
Researchers have identified four universal stages of burnout among helping professions:
1. Enthusiasm
2. Stagnation
3. Frustration
4. Apathy
If I can be frank, I have experienced all four at some point in a single day.
I have served in ministry for years, when I started off, I had the compassion to serve God whole heartily and in that serve God’s people in whatever way God would deem. (quite some motivation, right?)
The challenge came when I just took on too much at a go! My prioritize were just not set right and at times that wearied me down.
I would move from being excited one morning to prayer service, to being on autopilot during lunch time doing my church cell group report and being on numb by evening and ignoring peoples calls and messages. I was just getting too tired doing what I loved!
An article on helpguide.org describes burnout as a state of emotional, physical and mental exhaustion caused by excessive and prolonged stress. One of the points this article that talks about causes is being ‘unable to meet constant demands’
In essence you are just losing interest and motivation, in my case compassion, which is the centre of why I was serving in Ministry.
“compassion is a demonstration of our triune God’s grace and mercy in visible acts of patience and love”
I was doing everything I can for the expansion of the kingdom and the demonstration of God’s love to the community, the nation and the world. But I began to lose that compassion and I was constantly on autopilot.
Have you experienced something like this before?
Even if it’s not in the context of ministry/church, but at work, at school or in your business.
Is your compassion/passion data depleting?
· Every day is a bad day
· You are exhausted all the time
· You feel overwhelmed by everything in your life
· You feel nothing you do makes a difference
· It’s a waste of energy to care about your work, business, school or ministry
“The way to restore compassion for others is by receiving and savouring the compassion of God” Jeremy Linneman
Here are some ways to reload your data of compassion/passion:
1. Slow Down
Don’t be in a hurry to get everything done right now! I used to have this challenge, everything on my list needed to be done today and if I did not meet the target, I would get grossly disappointed. The definition of hurry is an 'unsustainable pace'. We need to allow ourselves to slow down and even let God redirect our plans, let go of our timelines and just do what we can with no pressure to “hurry up”
2. Connect to your power source
The next thing now that you have slowed down is to keep connected to the power source, just like you constantly plug-in your smart phones to the charger so you can have the power on to keep working on it. You personally need to be constantly connected to were you receive a charge, a power. In my early years in ministry I would be so busy to a point were I would forget to charge up to connect to my power source, which is God!
I am always pluged in now by constantly studying the Bible, praying and being in intermate worship.
“Worship is to the spirit, what water is to the body. I need to keep my spirit hydrated.”
3. Look Within
We are spirit beings and live in a body, it is expected that we run out of energy. We need to rest. (Psalm 127:2)
Resting allows you to reset your mind and body an renew your soul, it fixes your sight your focus.
Being tired can sometimes tempt us to think we did not get much accomplished or make us feel discouraged in well doing. We may sometimes feel our work was in vain or even, like how I used to constantly feel, disappointed that you had not finished all the tasks on the day’s list.
That is an attitude that could quickly lead to exhaustion emotionally and deplete your compassion/passion data.
Look within, what are you convincing yourself of?
4. Say 'NO' Sometimes
Know when to say ‘no’! Believe it or no, I only learned to do this with no guilt a couple of years ago (exactly two years ago!)
This goes hand-in-hand with fixing your priorities right. I used to be hasty in volunteering for things, always raising my hand up when they needed someone to come help with preparations for evening service (even when I didn’t know how I would get home in the evening), or raise my hands to distribute invitation flyers for church etc. before I knew it my to-do-list would be packed. I would feel so guilty if I couldn’t help out or do something.
That was not good even though the intentions were right and the heart was willing I just couldn’t continue like this. It even bled out to my social relationships I would say yes and later stress about how I would fulfil the promise. (I started running empty for giving out so many yeses!)
Beware to what you are saying yes to don’t be hasty to raise your hand to everything, it is ok to say ‘no’ I read something the other day that said “the need is not the call” it is not a sin to allow someone else to volunteer the next time they need someone to bake muffins for the cell group meeting or office celebration.
5. Weigh out what matters.
What you are staying awake for might not even matter! That thing keeping us up might lead to the burning out. It might not even matter! God has your back!
You need to evaluate what matters and what doesn’t not matter, dwelling on things that don’t matter will become a burden you do not need to carry
Things like what people think about you shouldn’t matter! What should matter is what God thinks about you or how He sees you!
Weigh out what matters and doesn’t matter, some will require you to say no, and that is just fine!
Relax, plug-in to your power source, breath and get your spiritual refreshment (Jeremiah 31:25)
Say this with me: Restore to me the joy of your salvation, Lord and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me! (Psalm 51:12)
God loves you. Stay Blessed.
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