Do You Feel ‘Life Burnout’ Looming?

Most of us experience the effects of life burnout from time to time. In this fast paced and demanding life–our energy, emotional well being and joy can easily be sucked right out of us.

Many of us think that it’s just because there is too much to do these days, but is that really true? Let’s go back to earlier times and ponder this thought for a moment. Today you can realistically wash clothes, cook dinner, do the dishes, and soothe your crying baby at the very same moment.  All you really had to do to accomplish this is load the two washers and touch the “wash” button. Dinner can be in the oven cooking at the same time, leaving you free to play with your child. Could this have happened in another time period? I highly doubt it.

Just think about washing dishes. First you’d have to get your water from the well, then make a fire to heat the water, and on and on. Realistically, life today can be as simple or as overly complex as we allow it to be. Every person in every time period had priorities to deal with. If you are feeling the familiar pull of things that compete for your attention and a possible life burnout looming on your horizon–let’s take a deep breath together and do something about it.

Spend Time With God

God is the only One who can bring a sense of peace and calm to your daily life. The key is in spending time with Him. Are you getting your daily dose of God? If not, make spending with Him an absolute priority.

In the book of Haggai, God used Zechariah and Haggai to encourage the people to rebuild the temple in Jerusalem. God promised to bless their efforts and fill the temple with His glory and His presence.

Haggai goes on to explain the difficulty the Jews had been experiencing. Their priorities were backwards. The people were diligent workers, tilling the land and planting their grain, but their harvests were failing.  In fact, it seemed the harder they tried, the less food and clothing they produced (Haggai 1: 5-6)

The people in Haggai’s day were making the same mistake that we make today. (Things really never change very much, do they?) The people left the temple in ruins while they tried to make their lives work. Their excuse? The people complained that they didn’t have time to rebuild the temple. They were frustrated and no-doubt felt overworked and helpless. I’m sure that life burnout was baring down on them as well.

Reasons for Difficulty

Isn’t it amazing how short sighted we are at times? It’s almost as if we have blinders on, just going through the motions of our overly busy lives. Constantly running to business meetings, driving our children to sporting events, squeezing every possible activity into a 24-hour period. Once in a while, completely exhausted, we collapse, wondering if we are actually accomplishing anything worthwhile at all.

Good News

Thankfully, God’s ways are not our ways.

“As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts.” Isaiah 55:9

By realizing that you can’t make the right choices, prioritize correctly or even see the way clearly without God–you are in the perfect place to experience real and lasting change in your exhausting life.

Make the decision today to take Haggai’s timeless advice. Haggai’s message is a mixture of encouragement to a people who had become consumed with the details of their own lives and also to those who felt that their efforts just weren’t good enough. –Sound familiar?

Haggai basically said, “Stop the madness. Put God first. Make Him your priority and He will make you His priority.”

You Can Experience Peace

Regardless of what is going on around you, if you agree to spend time with God and put Him first, you will be filled with peace.

“You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on You, Because he trusts in You.” Isaiah 26:3

Once you have your priorities straight, you will be amazed at the things you will accomplish. If God fills even your weakest efforts with His presence, you will accomplish greater things than you could ever imagine!