Burnout, Part 4 — Symptoms of Burnout

Elijah was afraid, so he got up and fled for his life to Beer Sheba in Judah. He left his servant there, while he went a day’s journey into the desert. He went and sat down under a shrub and asked the Lord to take his life: “I’ve had enough! Now, O Lord, take my life. After all, I’m no better than my ancestors.” (1 Kings 19:3–4 NET)

Elijah gives us a true picture of burnout and by examining the details of his life and ministry in 1 Kings 17–19 we can see almost a template for what people experience in burnout.

The difference personality makes: Regardless of our personality there is no excuse for any spiritual failure on our part, yet there are some tendencies that we each have. Tim LaHaye in his book The Spirit Controlled Temperament, identifies two basic responses of all people — fear and anger.

Some people tend toward fear, such as Elijah, and though they may rise above their fears, when they are weak and burned out they may feel overwhelmed by their fears. Some people tend toward anger, and this was Moses, and their burnout will have a somewhat different set of traits. They have explode in anger, where the fearful seem to implode in fear.

But in both cases there is a spiritual solution by the Holy Spirit who can take our weaknesses and make His strength evident in our lives. It is interesting how the Spirit is doing the same work in every life — recreating the spiritual character of Christ in us. So He softens the angry person to make them tender and compassionate, and He hardens the fearful person to make them brave and courageous.

The best people burn out: But before we get too hard on all of those who burnout we need to acknowledge that it is precisely the best people who do burnout, the people who seek to do something for God. Many people never burnout because they never attempt anything hard, risky, or difficult. These two spiritual giants of Scripture, Moses and Elijah, though their weaknesses are exposed we should also look at them with admiration for their commitment.

And if, or when, you see someone in Christian ministry who seems to be burned out, stop before you judge them and consider that maybe there is something here to admire — the very fact that they got out of the boat, that they put themselves in the arena of life and tried to do something for God. President Teddy Roosevelt once said:

It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.

Now we are to only take on those assignments that God leads us to take on, and we are to do everything in the power of the Holy Spirit, but yet I have never known nor seen it to be the case that in so doing that we will not cross the line sometimes, and that our ambitions for Christ may lead us to barge into areas where He has not called us to venture. Like David trying to build the temple, or Paul trying to evangelize Asia, or in our passage today of Elijah’s reach for God seeming to extend his grasp — groping for things we may only touch with the tips of our fingers but not grip with our hands. So we should be patient with those who burnout and with ourselves if we burnout. God certainly is.

The circumstances he faced: Burnout does not happen in a vacuum, and the events leading up to this moment when Elijah’s soul imploded in defeat stretched out over several years. It was the darkest time spiritually in the northern kingdom of Israel with King Ahab ruling, whom the scripture says, “Did more to provoke the LORD God of Israel to anger than all the kings of Israel who were before him” (1 Kings 16:33). Elijah had declared a drought that lasted for three years, and during that time he lived in the harshest of conditions — hiding out during the first part by the Brook Cherith where ravens brought food to him, and then staying with a poor widow where God miraculously supplied their needs one day at a time — and all of this time being hunted by King Ahab. Jezebel, Ahab’s wife, had had all the prophets of God that she could find killed, so it was an incredible time of hardship, under threat of death, amid spiritual darkness.

Then there was the showdown between Elijah and the prophets of Baal, which numbered 450. In this dramatic event there was a tremendous out burst of faith and obedience to the people who had responded to the miraculous display of God’s power by putting to death these false prophets of Baal. The drought was lifted and their was rain in the land. It appears that Elijah had hoped that this would be a turning point for the nation, that repentance and revival would sweep the land and bring them all back to serve God. Yet in in 1 Kings 19:2 we read that Jezebel swears to kill Elijah, and this was his breaking point.

Unrelenting hardship that lasts for several years, spiritual darkness where you feel all alone, and then just when you hope things will have changed you discover that Ahab is still king and Jezebel is still his queen, and they are still as evil as ever. Fatigue, darkness, isolation, disappointment add up and take their toll on us.

The symptoms: If we were to summarize his symptoms we would have a list somewhat like this:

1. A sense of frustration in being unable to change the circumstances we live in
2. A sense that we ourselves are irreplaceable
3. A sense of being unappreciated by others
4. A sense of disappointment in God, that He had not done what we expected Him to do
5. A feeling of being overwhelmed and of having too much to do — unrelenting responsibilities
6. A sense of being isolated and alone
7. The death of those dreams and hopes we had earlier held of making a difference for God

For Moses these things resulted in his anger, but for Elijah they resulted in an overwhelming sense of defeat. He prayed for death feeling that he had utterly failed — was no better than his fathers. We see the hope of the younger Elijah in these words, that he had once believed that God could use him to bring a revival of true faith in Israel, that he was the one prophet who was going to bring the entire nation back to God.

Don’t we see this in virtually every generation of young evangelists, that their generation will win the world to Christ, that they will make all things right with the world? The truth is that all good young men and women are like that — they have great dreams and hopes and plans. But then as middle age and disillusionment settles in there is despair and burnout and they say, “We are no better than those who went before.” We all want to make a difference of some sort in this world, and especially is this true for Christians. We are not satisfied to see things stay the same as they are, and we are especially disappointed when they get worse.

The response we need: The prophet Joel said that in the age of the Spirit, the age in which we live now, that “old men shall dream dreams” (Joel 2:28 and Acts 2:17). It also says that young men shall see visions, but, frankly, there is nothing new in that, for young men always have grand visions of the future. But for old men to dream again means that the Spirit of God is active and restoring their hope, and He can do the same for each of us.

Jesus taught His disciples not to rejoice in the successes of their ministries, nor to despair in the seeming failure, but to rejoice that their names are written in heaven — or to rejoice in the fact of God’s work in us (Luke 10:20). Our focus needs to be upon the relationship we have with the Lord Jesus, and He strengthens us for the challenges we will face in His name through building us up in love and assurance.

Tomorrow we will look at how God restored the hope of Elijah, and how God will do the same for us. But let this study end in a time of spiritual inventory. How many of these seven symptoms mentioned above are currently in your heart? Take these matters to God in prayer and ask Him to reveal where your heart is, let Him begin the healing process and the restoring process to joy and effective service for Him. We must know Him first before we take Him to others.

The lyrics to the Hillsong song “Ocean” spoke to my heart this morning. It was written by Joel Houston, Matt Crocker, and Salomon Lighthelm :

You call me out upon the waters

The great unknown where feet may fail.

And there I find You in the mystery

In oceans deep my faith will stand.

And I will call upon Your name

And keep my eyes above the waves.

When oceans rise

My soul will rest in Your embrace

For I am Yours and You are mine.

Your grace abounds in deepest waters

Your sovereign hand will be my guide

Where feet may fall and fear surrounds me

You’ve never failed and You won’t start now.

Spirit lead me where my trust is without borders

Let me walk upon the waters wherever You have called me.

Take me deeper than my feet could ever wander

And my faith could be made stronger

In the presence of my Savior.

Here is a video of Oceans sung by my friend Jorge Mhondera