Beating Burn-Out (Part 2)
According to the Bible, Christians have the tools, or weapons, to bring down the enemy's spiritual, mental and emotional strongholds (2 Corinthians 10:3-5).
Through the power of godly decisions, we can actively engage the enemy in the battle of the mind. We can head off burnout before it occurs, or, if we've been through a burnout, make a quicker recovery by God's grace.
In part one, we looked at the importance of expecting and celebrating success. Now we turn our attention to another helpful key.
Become a Process Person, not an Event Junkie.
In many parts of the world, the TV show that has defined media trends over the past two years has been the ubiquitous Big Brother.
In Britain Alone, over 10 million people -- around 1 in 6 of the population - tuned in for the final episode of series one. In the USA, the Big Brother website was for a time the most visited site in the country.
The so-called 'reality' TV phenomenon poses several dangers in our society. For one, it turns many people into voyeurs. They are content to watch the minutia of other people's lives instead of living out their own great adventure!
Reality TV also encourages a culture of celebrity over achievement. Once upon a time, celebrities were people we celebrated because they had achieved something great. Now, celebrities are people who are well known for being well known; people whose real lives are buried under a load of cosmetic artifice and plastic spin doctoring.
In a celebrity-dominated culture, we can each get to the point where we see ourselves as the centre of an event rather than one part of an epic process. That's one of the reasons for the rise of burnout in our society.
A major cause of burnout is role overload. Some people feel that they just can't say no to anyone or anything. They seem to believe that changing the world starts and ends with them.
To avoid burnout, we must become process thinkers.
No matter how talented or resourceful you may be, things don't start and end with you. If you're a Christian, you are working for something much bigger than yourself, your reputation or the honour of your name. You are working to honour God's name.
That's a noble quest that started long before you were born and will go on long after you have departed the scene. You can play a significant part in it, but you don't need to feel that it's all up to you and nobody else.
In I King 19, we find Elijah staring into a deep chasm of personal despair. For all his miracle power and call-fire-from-heaven courage, he finds himself running for his life. Sitting under a tree in the desert, he cries, 'Let me die, God. I've had enough!'
Elijah is facing his own personal burnout.
In his grace, God gently leads Elijah through a process of healing. One of the things Elijah is instructed to do is to anoint a new king (Jehu) and a new prophet for Israel (Elisha). God tells Elijah, 'What you're not able to do, these guys will do for me.'
God is saying, 'You're not alone, Elijah. This great venture to which you've devoted your life didn't start with you and it won't end with you. You are not a singular event - you are part of a massive process, and one that ultimately will not fail. You may struggle in one battle, but you can't lose the war!'
One of the best ways to beat burnout before it occurs is to surround yourself with Jehu's: change agents who have the same desire as you do. I've written before about the power of surrounding yourself with the kind of people who turn small ideas into big movements.
Some of these people are mavens. They love to collect and share information, for the sheer pleasure of doing it. They can expose us to the thrill of new information.
Some are connectors. They build large networks of friends and acquaintances and love to bring people together. They can expose us to the thrill of new friendships and alliances.
Others are salesmen: people who like to talk up an idea, showing its benefits with real evangelistic zeal. They can expose us to the thrill of new concepts and projects.
If you're under great pressure, don't withdraw into your own cavern of discouragement. Pray for God's help to identify one or two positive change-agents who have faith to achieve the result you want with some guidance from you.
Another key is to invest yourself in the next generation, to find some Elisha's to whom you can impart your spirit. Elisha took a load from Elijah's shoulders. In the process, he picked up Elijah's values and habits. Elijah multiplied his effectiveness through Elisha.
Every generation is faced with its own battle, its own war. Every generation should provide some cover for the next so that it can not only survive, but do the heroic, the impossible.
As we invest in the next generation, preparing them to take on what we can't, we remove from ourselves the burden of event thinking. We break the power of burnout over our lives.
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