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HOW TO PREVENT BURNOUT
Patience, Persistence and Peace of Mind
- Part 3 of 6
1 Kings 19:1-16, James 5:17
02-24-13 Sermon
Now Ahab told Jezebel
everything Elijah had done and how he had killed all the prophets with the
sword. So Jezebel sent a messenger to
Elijah to say, “May the gods deal with me, be it ever so severely, if by this
time tomorrow I do not make your life like that of one of them.” Elijah was afraid and ran for his life. When he came to Beersheba in Judah he left
his servant there, while he himself went a day’s journey into the desert. He came to a broom tree, sat down under it
and prayed that he might die. “I have
had enough, Lord,” he said. “Take my
life; I am no better than my ancestors.”
Then he lay down under the tree and fell asleep. All at once an angel touched him and said,
“Get up and eat.” He looked around, and
there by his head was a cake of bread baked over hot coals, and a jar of water. He ate and drank and then lay down
again. The angel of the Lord came back a
second time and touched him and said, “Get up and eat, for the journey is too
much for you.” So he got up and ate and drank. Strengthened by the food, he traveled forty
days and forty nights until he reached Horeb, the mountain of God. There he went into a cave and spent the
night. And the word of the Lord came to
him: “What are you doing here,
Elijah?” He replied, “I have been very
zealous for the Lord God Almighty. The
Israelites have rejected your covenant, broken down your altars, and put your
prophets to death with the sword. I am
the only one left, and now they are trying to kill me too.” The Lord said, “Go out and stand on the
mountain in the presence of the Lord, for the Lord is about to pass by.” Then a great and powerful wind tore the
mountains apart and shattered rocks before the Lord, but the Lord was not in
the wind. After the wind there was an
earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake came a fire, but the
Lord was not in the fire. And after the
fire came a gentle whisper. When Elijah
heard it, he pulled his cloak over his face and went out and stood at the mouth
of the cave. Then a voice said to him,
“What are you doing here, Elijah?” He
replied, “I have been very zealous for the Lord God Almighty. The Israelites have rejected your covenant,
broken down your altars, and put your prophets to death with the sword. I am the only one left, and they are trying to
kill me too.” The Lord said to him, “Go
back the way you came, and go to the Desert of Damascus. When you get there, anoint Hazael king over
Aram. Also, anoint Jehu son of Nimshi
king over Israel, and anoint Elisha son of Shaphat from Abel Meholah to succeed
you as prophet. Jesus will put to death
any who escape the sword of Hazael, and Elisha will put to death any who escape
the sword of Jehu. Yet I reserve seven
thousand in Israel—all whose knees have not bowed down to Baal and all whose
mouths have not kissed him.” 1
Kings 19:1-18.
"Elijah was a
person just like us. . ."
James 5:17
1. THE CONSEQUENCES OF BURNOUT
a.
We depreciate ______________________________
"Elijah
came to a broom tree, sat down under it, and prayed . . . `Take my life. I'm no better than my ancestors." vs. 4
b.
We underrate ______________________________
"I
have worked very hard for the Lord of the heavens; but the people
of Israel
have broken their covenant with You and have torn down Your altars. . ." vs. 10 (LB)
c.
We exaggerate ______________________________
"I am the only one
left -- and they are trying to kill me!" vs 10b
d.
We abdicate ______________________________
". . . he prayed
that he might die. `I have had enough,
Lord!' he said."
2. THE CURE FOR BURNOUT
a.
______________________________ your body.
"He
laid down. . . and fell asleep . . . Then the angel said, `Get up and eat.' . .
. He ate and drank and then laid down again. . . Then the angel said `Get up
and eat (again) for the journey is too much for you." vs. 5-8
b.
______________________________ your frustrations.
"There
he went into a cave and spent the night.
(God said) `What are you doing here, Elijah?' He replied, `I've been very zealous for
the Lord, (but) . . . " vs. 9-10a
Elijah's Frustrations:
* Fear
(vs. 3) Resentment
(vs. 4) Low self-esteem (vs. 4b) Anger (vs. 10)
* Loneliness (vs. 10b) Worry (vs. 10c)
"Cast all your cares on Him, because He
cares for you." 1 Peter 5:7
c.
______________________________ on God.
"Go out and stand
before Me on the mountain,' the Lord told him." vs. 11
"Reverence for God
gives a man deep strength." Pr.
14:16 (LB)
d.
______________________________ serving others.
"Go
back the way you came. . . to the desert of Damascus. When you get there, anoint Hazael. . . and
Jehu. . . Elisha . . . " vs.
15-16
"Let
us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a
harvest if we do not give up!"
Gal. 6:9
HOW TO PREVENT
BURNOUT
Patience, Persistence and Peace of Mind
- Part 3 of 6
1 Kings 19:1-16, James 5:17
02-24-13 Sermon
1 Kings 19. Recently I saw an article in Success magazine that begins this way,
"As the head of a small business, Bob Dacha was particularly
vulnerable. He had been the part owner
and manager of a San Francisco travel agency for eight years. Now he had to admit that he was in bad
shape. Depressed and listless, he
couldn't motivate himself. `I was short
tempered with clients on the phone and I took out my frustrations on the people
I worked with.' Diagnosis: burnout."
It's a scenario familiar to
anyone in the business work. A recent
cartoon depicts a gloomy, tensed up executive at a cocktail party wearing a
name tag that reads, "Contents under pressure." How true it is for so many executives. Stress is costing American business one
hundred million dollars a year in illness and lowered productivity. That doesn't even begin to take into account
the price executives pay in personal terms -- confidence eroded, marriages
strained or broken, red hot careers left in ashes. The culprit every time: burnout.
What in the world is
burnout? It's more than fatigue. It's basically unfulfilled expectations and
the fatigue that comes from that. Dr. Herbert
Fruetenberger defined it this way: "A
state of emotional frustration brought about by a devotion to a cause, a
lifestyle or a relationship that failed to produce the expected reward."
Today we want to look at
burnout for just a minute. We want to
look at the causes and the cures. We're
going to try to look at burnout before we burn out. Burnout is not a new problem. It's as old as the Bible. Three thousand years ago, a man named Elijah
had it. The Bible tells us Elijah was
just like us. He had a spiritual victory
on Mt. Carmel -- a god contest which he won against 400 prophets of an
idol. Right after that, the queen of
Israel, put a price on his head. He runs
across the country, hides in a cave in the desert, and says, "God, kill me!" One minute he's the hero, the next minute
he's the zero. One minute he's on the
mountain top the next minute he's in the valley. One minute he's at the pinnacle of success,
the next minute he's in the valley of stress.
How did he handle it? We're going
to look at that today.
What are the consequences of
burnout? There are four things that
happen when people burn out emotionally.
Some of you really need this today.
Some of you say, "I don't
need it." Take notes anyway
because you'll need it some day. Some of
you know someone who's right on the verge of burnout and you need to know how
to help them.
FOUR CONSEQUENCES OF BURNOUT:
1. We
depreciate our worth.
We devalue ourselves. We put ourselves down. We become hyper critical of ourselves. v. 4 "Elijah
came to a broom tree, sat down under it and prayed, "Take my life. I'm no better than my ancestors." He says "My
life is worthless!"
The first consequence of
burnout is low self esteem. Circle
"better". The cause of burnout
is often comparison. He says "I'm no better than my ancestors." The Bible warns us over and over not to
compare ourselves to others. It says
don't do it. You're setting yourself up
to be depressed. You are unique. You're one in six billion people. There's nobody ever like you in the
world. When you get to heaven, God isn't
going to say, "Why weren't you more
like Billy Graham" or "Why
weren't you more like Moses".
He's going to say, "Why
weren't you more like you?"
God made you to be you and if
you don't be you, nobody else is going to be you. We tend to depreciate our worth when we burn
out because we compare ourselves to others.
We compare our weaknesses with other people's strengths and forget their
weaknesses. We try to motivate ourselves
through criticism and it just doesn't work.
2. We underrate
our work.
Elijah said, "I have worked very hard for the Lord God
of heavens, but the people of Israel have broken their covenants with You and
have torn down Your altars." Elijah's
blaming himself for things that weren't his fault. The nation was falling apart and Elijah takes
it personally. He says. "It's all my fault."
This is the Atlas
syndrome. The whole world is resting on
my shoulders. I've got to be the answer
for everything. A Messiah complex. Everything depends on me. I've got to make sure everything turns out
all right. If you've got that attitude
that's a sure pathway to burnout.
If I had time today we'd talk
about the fact that many thing are out of your control. One of the things that is out of control in
your life is you are not responsible for the response of other people. You can influence other people but you can't
control them. Parents have to learn this
or as a parent you'll burn out. Every time you take responsibility for
someone, you take it away from that person. That keeps them from growing up. As your kids are growing up there are factors
in life you just can't control ‑- who their friends will be, what they'll read,
experiences they'll have. You must learn
that you are responsible to other people but you're not responsible for
other people. The prodigal son's father
was not responsible for the fact that the prodigal went off and blew his
life. God was a perfect father and yet
Adam sinned. We need to learn that we're
not responsible for other people's response in life. Otherwise we burn out.
3. We
exaggerate our problems.
We focus only on the
negative. v. 10 Elijah says, "I am the only one left and they are
trying to kill me too!" This
guy's having a Grade A pity party. It's
like the mother that walked into the room and said, "Bob, you've got to get up.
You've got to go to church." Bob said, "I
don't want to go, Mom." She
said, "You've got to go. You're just having a pity party. You've got to go for two reasons: One, you're 35 years old and two, you're the
pastor."
The truth is, Elijah wasn't
the only one left. There were at least
7000 other people who hadn't bowed to Baal.
And not everybody was against him.
Just one woman -- the queen. She
sent a messenger to say, "I'm going to kill you!" If Elijah had been smart, if he hadn't been
burned out, he'd realized if Jezebel really wanted to kill him, she would have
sent a hit man not a messenger. She was
warning him. She was bluffing.
The problem we have here is
what's called emotional reasoning, focusing on feelings instead of facts. I feel it must be true, therefore it must be
true. Athletes, performers, musicians
often feel discouraged -- feelings of failure at the end of a performance. You just have to learn to ignore it. Feelings are highly unreliable. Your feelings may just be the result of a bad
pizza you ate last night.
Why am I saying all
this? Because some of you may have come
here today saying, "I don't feel
close to God. I don't feel God's working
in my life. I don't feel that He loves
me. I don't feel like He knows me." It doesn't matter what you feel. It matter what the truth is. A lot of therapists today say, "Get in touch with your feelings." That's a good thing to do. But more important than getting in touch with
your feelings is get in touch with the truth.
The Bible does not say, "and
you will know your feelings and they will set you free." It says, "You
will know the truth..." The
truth will set you free. You say you're
in a hopeless situation. Is that what
you say or is that what God says about it?
God says "All things are
possible to him who believes."
We depreciate our worth, we
under rate our work, we exaggerate our problems.
4. We abdicate
our dreams.
This is the most serious of
all. We want to give up. We say it's just not worth it. I'm throwing in the towel. We tend to give up on our goals and lose our
vision. We tend to settle for second
best. This is what Elijah did in verse
4. "He prayed that he might
die. I have had enough, Lord! he
said. I've had enough!" Some of you are at this point this morning. You're saying you're ready to kick it off,
throw in the towel. You want to
leave. Leave your job, leave your
marriage, leave school. You're burned out, tired, frustrated. What do you do?
CURE FOR BURNOUT
You do what God told Elijah
to do. He did four things. God's road for recovery for burn out. If you don't need this now, you're going to
need it later or you'll need it to help somebody else.
1. Rest your
body
v. 5-8 "He laid down. He fell
asleep. Then the angel said, `Get up and
eat.' He ate and he drank and then laid
down again. Then the angel said, `Get up
and eat again for the journey is too much for you.'"
That sounds like a pretty
good antidote to me. He says this is
God's antidote for depression. God says,
You're burned out. First we've got to
take care of your physical health.
When you're emotionally stressed out it affects your body, it makes you
physically tired. The very first step in
burnout, God says get control of your physical situation.
God's antidote for Elijah's
depression and burnout was eat and sleep, eat and sleep. Sometimes the most spiritual thing you can do
is go home and go to bed. God did not
criticize Elijah. He didn't give him a
sermon. He didn't give him a
lecture. "Snap out of it! You're
burned out. Act like a man!" He didn't criticize him for being burnt
out. He didn't chastise him. He said, First, we need to take care of this
physical situation. Eat, sleep, eat, sleep.
God's answer was food, rest, relaxation.
When you get out of balance
and you don't do those things you're going to burn out. I told the men and ladies at the pastor's
conference this week, If you burn the candle at both ends, you're not as bright
as you think you are. You can have so
many irons in the fire, you put out the fire.
Psalm 127:2 (Living Bible) "God wants His loved ones to get their
proper rest." Vince Lombardi
once said, "Fatigue makes cowards of
all of us." That's what was
happening here. Elijah was physically
worn out. He had just had a major emotional
victory up on Mt. Carmel. He was
completely drained. Spiritually,
emotionally, physically -- in every sense.
He needed some rest. He needed some relaxation.
God says take care of your
body. That's the first thing you've got
to do. Rest your body. It's amazing how much better things look
after a good night's sleep.
After you've taken care of
that, then He says, Now we've got to take care of your emotions. First we took care of your physical aspect,
now we take care of your emotional aspect.
2. Release your
frustrations
Tell God how you feel. v. 9 & 10 "Then he went into a cave and spent the night. God said `What are you doing here,
Elijah?' He replied, `I've been very
zealous for the Lord but..."
and then he starts unloading.
What's happening?
God takes him to this cave
and says, "Ok, Elijah, just get it
off your chest. Tell Me. What's bugging you? What's got you irritated? What are you uptight about? Vent your frustrations." Psychology
calls it catharsis.
So Elijah does. At this point in Elijah's life he's a fruit
basket of emotions. In v. 3 he says he's
afraid; resentful in v. 4 and low self-esteem; v. 10 he talks about he's angry
and lonely and he was worried. Don't you
think if you had all of those bundled up in your life wouldn't you be a
candidate for burnout? Elijah was. God
says, vent it, what's bugging you?
Here's the point: God is not shocked when you complain to Him.
When you say, "God, life
stinks! I'm ticked off! I'm miserable. I'm depressed!" He's not shocked, worried. He's not blown away when you say, "I don't know what I believe." He knows exactly how you feel even before you
tell Him. What He wants you to do is get
it off your chest. When I swallow my
emotions, my stomach keeps score. You've
got to get it out.
So God says, Vent, release
your frustrations. Relax your body and
release your frustration. He allowed
Elijah to go on and on until he ran out of words. God did the same thing with David in the
Psalms. Have you ever read those Psalms
where David is angry at everybody and wondered why they're in the Bible? Places where he says, "God, I don't like it! Kill
all my enemies. Bash their babies. Knock their teeth out!" You think, "Why is this in the Holy Bible?"
Every single emotion known to
man is contained in the book of Psalms.
It's a very honest book. In many
of the Psalms, David is unloading to God.
They're there in the Bible to say it's ok for you to do that. God's not going to walk out on you. He wants you to unload so you can be healed
emotionally.
Some of you just need to
spill your heart go God. He's not going
to get angry at you. 1 Peter 5:7 "Cast all your cares on Him, because He
cares for you." He says take
all those burdens, those stresses, those pressures that you're feeling and dump
them on the Lord. Cast all your cares on
God. "Here
God, I can't handle it!" God
says, "I knew that!"
Rest your body, you release
your frustrations. Sometimes it helps to
have a Christian friend to listen to you.
Elijah, at this point, didn't have a friend that he could unload
on.
If you're not in a small
group, you need to get in a small group. In small groups is where you meet
people and get close to them and then when you're needing some support, you
call them up and say, "I'm having a
tough time" and they'll hear you out and vice‑ versa.
After you've got the physical
aspect taken care of and you've got the emotional aspect taken care of, step
three in the recovery is spiritual recovery.
3. Refocus on
God.
Get your eyes off the
problem, get your eyes on God. Get a
fresh awareness of His power, His presence.
If you look at the world, you'll be distressed; if you look within,
you'll be depressed; if you look at Christ, you'll be at rest.
v. 11 God says "`Go out and stand before Me on the
mountain,' the Lord told him."
God says, I've got something for you to see. God puts on this
spectacular light show for Elijah. First
He causes a great wind to come by.
Elijah's standing here on the mountain and sees the huge wind come by. Then God causes an earthquake and the earth
rumbles. Then He sends a great fire down
and watches all these spectacular fireworks.
Then God speaks in this gentle whisper.
You say, "What's the point of all this?
Why is God demonstrating all His power like this to Elijah when he's
burned out?" God's saying, "Elijah, I'm in control. I've got the power to handle any
situation. Don't worry about some lady
trying to kill you. You can resign as general manager of the universe and it's
not going to fall apart. I'm God. You're not."
The root problem of burnout
is you're trying to be God. You're
trying to be Superman. You're trying to
do more than God intended for you to do.
You're accepting responsibility God never intended for you to have. God never puts more on you than He puts in
you to bear up under it. But sometimes you
take on more than you ought to take on.
So God says, "I'm God and
you're not. Watch this!" And He does this big power
display."
You refocus on God's power
and then your problems are a whole lot smaller.
Proverbs 14:16 (Living Bible)
"Reverence for God gives a man deep
strength." In today's high
stress, irritating world -- especially here in Orange County -- I don't know
how you're going to make it without a daily time with God. A daily quiet time with God is a
decompression chamber. It's time to get
alone with God, sort out your thoughts, read some of the Bible, talk to Him in
prayer, set in His presence in silence and decompress from all of the stress
that's in our society. Reverence for the
Lord gives a person great strength.
Refocus on God.
God says, I've taken care of
the physical and I've taken care of the emotional and I've taken care of your
spiritual. But there's one more step you
need in the road to recovery if you're burned out.
4. Resume
serving others.
Get the focus off
yourself. Notice God gave Elijah a new
assignment. v. 15-16 "Go back the way you came to the desert
of Damascus. When you get there anoint
Hazael and Jehu and Elisha." He says, "I want you to get back
involved in ministry and do the things that prophets are supposed to
do." One of these three guys --
Elisha -- was to become his best friend.
Every burned out person needs a close friend. From then on, Elijah would minister with a
buddy, not by himself. He wouldn't be
the Lone Ranger. This man became his protege.
He says, "Elijah I've got something for you to do." Why did He do that? Why is it important for burned out people to
get back in some kind of service and ministry?
God did this for Elijah's self esteem.
He says, You need to get involved in ministry. You need to get your eyes off yourself. When you're burned out you tend to become
very introspective. You can become
morbid about it. All you see is
"Oh, me! My problems. My needs.
My hurts. How tired I am!"
All you see is you're looking at yourself.
God says, "You need to get your eyes off
yourself, Elijah. You need to get
yourself out in helping other people, serving again. Quit moping around. Get a purpose for life."
The point is: The quickest way to get rid of depression is
to get your eyes off yourself and get involved in giving your life away to help
other people. When you look at yourself
you're just going to get down and down.
Jesus said it like this, "You
lose your life to find it." As
you give your life away, you become a receptacle of God's love. The more you give out the more God gives to
you.
God says, You've taken care of the physical, you've
taken care of the spiritual, you've taken care of the emotional. There's one other thing. You need the relational. Lose your life to find it.
Elijah thought God was
through with him. He was depressed,
discouraged, down in the dumps. He's one
of the two guys in the Bible that said, "God,
kill me!" He was that
depressed. But God was not through with
Elijah. Not by any sense of the
word.
Some of you can identify with
this. You're down in the dumps. God's
not through with you. He's got a plan
for your life. My guess that in a group
this size, some of you can say, "I
can really relate to this guy."
You say, "There are some mornings I just don't want to get out of
bed. I feel like everything is piling up
on my life. I'm emotionally tired and
physically tired. I'm sick and tired of
being sick and tired."
One of the warning signs when
you're getting ready to burn out is you've got a short fuse. Everything irritates you. You have a glass that's filled to the brim
with so many emotions that when somebody comes along and just bumps you
slightly, it spills out all over. You're
like a champainge bottle that's been corked and shaken. It's about to explode. Some of you feel like checking out. You feel like Elijah: "Life
isn't worth living. I want to quit my
job. I want to run out on my marriage. I want to leave my responsibilities. I want to quit school. I want to chuck it all!"
To those of you I've got some
good news. In the first place, God knows
exactly how you feel. He really
does. And number two, He cares. He cares about how you feel. Not only does He care but I care and so does
this church, the people sitting around you. This is a caring church. You're not alone. God wants to work in your life. He's not finished with your life. You will come through this.
Some of you say,"I've got all kinds of aches and pains
in my life." I read this
recently in the newspaper, "As
everyday stress increases, so do aches and pains." It talks about how a group of psychiatrists
and M.D.s produced a list of factors that cause pain in people's lives. They called it the Hassles Scale. Twenty two
items were tested in the Hassles Scale and they found out the average adult
suffers from 4.3 of them. It causes, as
a result, headaches, muscle pains, stomach pains and all kinds of other
stuff. Those are warning lights that
God's saying, "It's not the way I want you to live.
Remember the definition of
burnout from a 1980 book on Burnout by Dr. Herbert Fruetenberger: "A
state of emotional frustration brought about by a devotion to a cause, a
lifestyle, a relationship that has failed to produce the expected
rewards."
The root then of burnout is
when you're looking to something besides God to fulfill your life. When you look to a lifestyle that some of you
have (that's going to burn out) or a relationship that some of you are
expecting to fulfill every need (and it's going to cause you to burn out) or a
commitment to a cause (like "I'm going to make a million bucks!" --
and you're going to burn out) -- you need to find the true source of life. You
were not made to live outside of God's will.
You were made to know Him personally, to be loved by Him and to love Him
and have a relationship with Him. When
you make that the priority in your life, it gives stability and strength.
Do any of these warning signs
click with you? Do you depreciate your
worth? Do you say "I don't feel
like what I'm doing is worth anything.
It's meaningless." Do you
underrate your work? Do You say "I'm just running in circles!" Do you tend to exaggerate your problems? Always see the negative instead of the
positive? Do you feel like you're about
to give up on your dreams?
If so, what do you do?
First, you open your life to
Jesus Christ. You develop a relationship
with Christ. He loves you. He wants you to know Him. He made you for a purpose. He has a plan for your life. Say,
"Christ, come into my life and give me the power to do these four
things: rest my body, release my
frustrations, refocus on God, resume serving others and find a place of
ministry where I can give out."
Prayer:
You need to
take these four steps as preventative steps in dealing with burnout in a very
high stress society. If you've never
said Yes to Jesus Christ say, "Christ, would You come into my life today? I don't understand it all. I haven't got all the theology figured
out. But I recognize the need for You in
my life. Jesus Christ, come into my mind
and my heart. Put Your spirit within
me. I want to follow You."
Many of you
have already done that. Would you follow
with these doing it today and say, "Next, would You help me to rest my
body, to get the exercise and diet and rest that I need to maintain this
body? Help me to release my frustrations
-- not to hold them in but to let You know how I feel, to spend time with You
in prayer every day, listening to You and listening to Your word and talking to
You about how I feel -- casting all my cares on You. Help me to refocus on You, Lord. You've said that reverence for God gives a
man and woman great strength. Help me to
find a place where I can give out in service to others, find a ministry so I
can get my eyes off myself and onto others."
The Bible
says, "Let us not become weary in
doing good for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give
up." Father, I pray for those
who are here today that would be on the verge of giving up, that they would
not, but that they would take these steps on the road to recovery for physical,
emotional, spiritual, relational balance in their lives. We thank You for those who today for the very
first time are opening their heart to You.
We pray Your blessing on them. In
Jesus' name. Amen.
On March 28th 6:30pm, Holy Thursday evening, we will show Mel Gibson’s Passion of the Christ in the church sanctuary. Please note that this film contains an extremely graphic portrayal of the whipping and crucifixion of Jesus that causes the film to be rated R. Parents of young children are cautioned that this portrayal is not appropriate for them. Still, it is a powerful film that will move you greatly.
This DVD series is by Andy Stanley, a pastor, communicator, author and the founder of North Point Ministries in Alpharetta, GA.