And now, for this week’s reflection, I think it’s time we talk seriously about the epidemic that no one is talking about: the Burnout Epidemic.
The Library of Medicine defines burnout as a state of physical or mental collapse caused by overwork or stress. Psychiatrists first began diagnosing burnout in the 70s and 80s, and it was originally thought to be a work-specific syndrome. But more recently, studies have shown that anyone can experience the effects of burnout – including students, stay-at-home parents, and retirees. It’s not about how stressful a job you have – it’s about whether that job – or that degree, or your performance as a mother, or that romantic relationship – is more important to you than God. You don’t need a job to get burned out; all you need is an idol.
Here’s what experts are learning about burnout: about 25% of Americans suffer with burnout at any given time. Burnout manifests itself exactly the way Depression does: physical and emotional fatigue, irritability, and mental gridlock. Sometimes, clinicians can’t even tell the difference between depression and burnout because the symptoms are so similar: over 90% of burnout patients are every bit as depressed as people with clinical depression are.
Certain kinds of people tend to struggle more with burnout than the general population: Millennials are the most stressed-out generation ever according to most of the available data. Working moms take more antidepressants than every other demographic group, except for stay-at-home moms, 40% of whom are on some kind of anxiety or depression medication. Half of all physicians and lawyers say they’re burned out…teachers also experience high levels of burnout. People who work over 60 hours a week do, too. All that to say, if I had to guess, I’d say Millennials, moms, doctors, lawyers, teachers, overachievers, and workaholics make up anywhere between 80-100% of our congregation at The Story. We need to talk about burnout.
Burnout isn’t a new problem; it’s actually found throughout the Bible. And Scripture identifies the condition we call burnout as a spiritual syndrome – more specifically, the Bible suggests burnout is the result of a deficit of discipline. Whenever people confuse purpose with production, discipline gives way to disorder. We want certain things out of life, but we don’t want to live with the discipline required to get those things.
We want to feel peace of mind without doing the disciplined spiritual work that real peace of mind requires. We want wisdom without study, righteousness without repentance, purity without modesty, depth without reflection, confidence without humility, and self-esteem without self-examination. We want all the benefits that come from a relationship with God, but without all the sacrifices required by a real relationship.
We all want the best things in life, but all the best things come through self-discipline. And so it is with our souls. When we’re able to keep our priorities straight, and we keep things simple by saying yes to some things and saying no to others, our souls can thrive. But when our lives become too cluttered and complicated for lack of discipline, the result is often burnout. In the Christian worldview, if we refuse or fail to discipline ourselves, God may try and do it for us.
In the Old Testament, God often disciplined His people through the prophets. The Hebrew prophets didn’t just predict the future; they told the truth about the present. The prophet Ezekiel, for example, scolded the people of God for living just like everybody else. They were worshiping many gods, just like everybody else, not taking care of the poor, just like everybody else, and having sex however they wanted, just like everybody else. God gave them a higher purpose, and they burned out due to their deficit of discipline.
In Ezekiel 15, God said to Ezekiel, “If the wood of a vine…was not useful for anything when it was whole, how much less can it be made into something useful when the fire has burned it and it is charred?” Therefore this is what the Sovereign Lord says: “As I have given the wood of the vine among the trees of the forest as fuel for the fire, so will I treat the people living in Jerusalem. I will set my face against them. Although they have come out of the fire, the fire will yet consume them. And when I set my face against them, you will know that I am the Lord. I will make the land desolate because they have been unfaithful,” declares the Sovereign Lord.
In the Bible, the vine was a common analogy meant to represent the people of God, and Ezekiel’s point here is that a vine had only one purpose: to bear fruit. Outside of bearing fruit, a vine was useless. You couldn’t build anything with it, or hang anything on it. The only function of a vine is to grow and be fruitful. God was saying that His people had failed to fulfill their only purpose because they tried to do things they were not made to do.
But God never reacts to our sin with the purpose of tearing us down; He always wants to build His people up. The Book of Ezekiel is one of the hardest books to read in the Bible – God often seems angry and harsh – but even in Ezekiel, the most repeated phrase is, “Then you will know that I’m the Lord.”
God repeats this refrain over 60 times in Ezekiel, which really gives us a sense of how desperate God is for us to know Him, to trust Him, and to rely on Him as our Lord.
Jesus channeled Ezekiel’s message at times, like in John 15, where he said: “I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener…you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing…”
He’s saying the same thing Ezekiel said: “Without this relationship, without me as your Lord, the source of your sustenance and significance, you’ll burn out. You keep chasing affirmation and affection and affiliation elsewhere, but that’s not what you’re here for.” God created you to live and to bear good fruit in the world. Live for anything else, and you’ll burn out.
If burnout has ever been a problem for you, you may have chalked it up to your demanding job or your low pay or your high stress or your small children. Those are all contributing factors, but burnout begins with spiritual blindness brought on by a deficit of discipline. There’s no better time than the season of Lent to begin living a more disciplined life, abiding in Jesus.
All the experts say it takes at least a month to break old habits and create new ones, and we’ve got a little over a month until Easter (April 4). What are the idolatrous habits, patterns, and thought processes that need to die between now and then, and how do you plan to say no to your idols of old, and yes to Jesus as your Lord?
Here are a few ideas to get you started:
• Spend some time reading about the fruit of the Spirit and Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, looking for key words and phrases that describe the Christian life.
• Be honest with yourself and with God about the idols you’ve been chasing. This could be anything – a job/career, a romantic relationship, an addiction, a hobby, excessive travel or entertainment, or even over-parenting. Whatever (or whomever) is more important to you than God, that’s your idol.
• If you’re feeling burned out these days, and if God feels especially distant to you right now, understand that God wants to build you up, not tear you down. He is the One who made you, and He knows you better than you know yourself. God knows you were made to live a meaningful, fruitful life under His lordship. So let God be the Lord of your life, and you’ll thrive.
