Avoiding Personal Burnout

1 Kings 19, God gave Elijah a new assignment. He said, "Go back the way you came to the desert of Damascus. When you get there, anoint Hazael and Jehu and Elisha." He said, you’re going to do ministry with buddies now because you were never meant to do it all alone. You serve in the context of the community of other believers.

God gives Elijah a new assignment to help him get out of his funk that he’s in. He wanted Elijah to realize that God wasn’t through with him. Elijah thought it was over. He said, "It’s over. I’m ready to die. Take my life." God said, "No, I’ve got a lot more to do. I’m not through with you."

God brought some of you here to Saddleback so He could say to you, "In spite of the depression, in spite of the problems, in spite of the hurt, in spite of the burnout I’m not through with you." He’s got a lot more to do. This is not the end. If you’ll take these steps, you’ll move on.

The quickest way to defeat depression is to get your eyes off yourself and start focusing on helping others. Jesus said, "In giving your life away, you find it." Elijah needed to get his eyes off himself.

Today you may be burned out and you may be depressed. You’re never going to get well by introspection alone. You’ve got to get outside of yourself. You have to find a ministry, find a place to serve. Use your talents. Stop just focusing on yourself and start focusing on helping others and that will bring the joy back. Joy comes from service. Satisfaction comes from service. Significance comes from service. Self esteem comes from service.

I’m sure there are people here today who feel like Elijah did. There are many days you just want to pull up the covers saying, "I don’t even want to get out of bed today. I want to go to sleep and not wake up." You feel like your pile is so high over your head, you’re never going to get to the top of it. You may feel emotionally or physically exhausted. Bare bones tired. In a crowd this size I have no doubt that you’ve considered this last week about checking out, even taking your own life. I want to say to you, There is hope. Don’t give up. God cares, Jesus cares, I care. This church cares. There are people sitting around you that care and who will help you.

This is God’s recovery plan. But you have to work on all four dimensions -- physical, spiritual, emotional, relational.

First, get the physical act together. Maybe you need to rearrange your schedule. Get more rest. You’re been trying to burn the candle at both ends.

Then you do the emotional. You unplug and talk about what you’re feeling and you tell God what you really feel. Maybe you tell it to a friend or counselor or someone in your small group.

Then you refocus the center of your life around Jesus Christ because He is God and you are not. The more you try to play God the more frustrated you’re going to get.

Then you get involved in helping somebody else. Get your eyes off yourself.

This works. It’s in the Bible. It works. I know this from personal experience because seventeen years ago I went through burnout. At the end of the first year of this church I just collapsed. You have no idea the energy it takes to get a church off the ground in it’s first year. Enormous amount of work. I was working 18-20 hours a day. I was a workaholic, loving every minute of it. But by the end of the year, I was frazzled emotionally, spiritually, physically -- I was drained. Through all of 1981, I was depressed. That was my burned out year. God slowly brought me back. All during ’81 my goal was not, "God, build a great church!" My goal was "God, get me through the week end." I’m so glad I didn’t gave up when I thought it was all over in ’81. I’m more than glad that God didn’t give up on me. Because God wasn’t through with me.