From where I sit, I’ve had a close up view of people following hard after God who have fallen hard in their pursuit of living for Him. We’re all susceptible to wanting to please people. Expectations sometimes sweep away passionate people who wanted to do their best and end up worn out. Without meaning to, family, bosses, relatives, friends, and church people have needs that may drive the most well meaning woman to a weary place before she even knows it.
In his book Leading on Empty, Wayne Cordeiro cautions that, “You will burn out sooner on the inside than you’re able to see on the outside.” We may want a quick “fix” to this slow growing problem, but that covers up the true need to recharge, figure out what brought us to burnout, and change the way we do life. No one is exempt from a burned out condition.
Some signs of burnout
- Work becomes difficult
- What once gave us joy feels like a heavy drain
- Decisions paralyze us
- Our creativity is stifled
- Physical symptoms or depression arise
- We feel swept along by life, but out of control
God’s Word records worn out words from some of God’s heaviest hitters: Moses (Numbers 11:14-15), David (Psalm 69:1-2), Elijah (1 Kings 19:2-4).
God’s Word for the weary
Elijah came away from victorious battle with 850 prophets of Baal and the evil King Ahab, leaving him with a target on his back in the eyes of the even more evil Queen Jezebel. Physically, emotionally, and mentally drained, the Prophet ran away into the wilderness and collapsed under a broom tree. He uttered a prayer to ask God to end his life. He was “over it.”
There under that tree, God sent an angel to speak words of understanding to the burned out, battle -weary man. Do you ever wish God would speak to you in your battle-weary place beside your laundry pile, at your bedside, at your desk, or in the pew? He might say what the angel said to Elijah:
But he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness and came and sat down under a broom tree. And he asked that he might die, saying, “It is enough; now, O Lord, take away my life, for I am no better than my fathers.” And he lay down and slept under a broom tree. And behold, an angel touched him and said to him, “Arise and eat.” And he looked, and behold, there was at his head a cake baked on hot stones and a jar of water. And he ate and drank and lay down again. And the angel of the Lord came again a second time and touched him and said, “Arise and eat, for the journey is too great for you.” And he arose and ate and drank, and went in the strength of that food forty days and forty nights to Horeb, the mount of God (1 Kings 19:1-8).
God knows we have limits, yet He has no limits. He invites us to let Him care for our needs, ceasing from doing and receiving His invitation to rest, letting Him be our Protector and Provider. The undeserved favor He shows can shelter us when we’re so weary we wish we could die. Even the man after God’s own heart, the anointed shepherd-king David experienced the feeling of being in over his head:
“Save me, O God! For the waters have come up to my neck.I sink in deep mire, where there is no foothold; I have come into deep waters, and the flood sweeps over me.” (Psalm 69:1-2).
God has an answer for seasons of weakness when life is heavy on our shoulders of flesh:
But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong (2 Corinthians 12:9-10).
Have you ever been under a broom tree? Eat what the Lord has prepared to give you strength, rest with Him watching over your circumstances, and follow Him one more step at a time. The power of Christ will rest on you.
What words would you share with someone who is under the broom tree?
Sometimes I think I live under a broom tree. I have suffered from depression for about 35 years, since my mid-teens. Of late, I have been wondering why God would allow it to continue for such a long time. Well, also recently, both my brother and husband have revealed they also are dealing with depression: my brother, because he took most of the duty of caring for our aging mother until she passed last year (they live/d several states away); my husband’s father recently suffered a stroke, and despite being in a wheelchair, is also trying to care for his older brother and his mother (70-ish and 90, respectively). Anyway, Chris tries to help, as much as his father will allow…but it has been hard on him to watch his father slowly go downhill.
Sorry, I tend to blather on sometimes. The point of that all is that I got the feeling that maybe this was part of my reason, that I needed to have “been there” so that I could BE there for them.
Lamentations 3:22 – “It is of the Lord’s mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not.”
Burnout rarely arrives in our lives alone. It’s often accompanied by depression and often brought on by the “one straw” that’s just too much. Caring for someone in a long illness, walking with an aging parent, and great loss can thrust us into that place that feels so heavy, so dark, and so alone. You are so right to see that God can use those who have “been there” to minister to those who are there, and His compassions don’t ever fail us. You are not blathering on, friend, but expressing the honest whisperings of a heavy heart. I will pray for your season under the broom tree to be one where you hear God’s whispering voice and that He will move you out from under it and into His peace and let Him carry your load.
Thank you so much for this post. Will not go into detail, but I am a minister and sometimes life can get over whelming. And at those times it is so great to have God’s Word to go to. May the Lord Bless you in doing His work.
Ministry is a place where we find a lot of victims of burnout. It often happens because people who want to serve are trained to see needs and motivated to meet them, but they can overtake us. Sadly, our desire to serve well can actually ruin our long-term ministry health and effectiveness if we don’t maintain good habits. Hard for people of flesh and blood to do in a world of need. Praying the Lord meets you under your broom tree. I do recommend Leading on Empty as a helpful resource.
Thanks Julie, will check out Leading on Empty. Praying for you and yours.
Thank you. I don’t often come to tears reading blogs (really, anti-depressant medications keep me from feeling that part of my heart) but I literally just wrote in my journal about the black cloud that isn’t shaking off of me. The weariness. The laundry pile. Another meal to make. Veggies and berries shoved to the back of the fridge and way past their prime. So many things that I am tired of keeping up with. Fighting against. I am comforted that (in the #keptstudy) Jesus agonized – and that he recognized that Peter and James & John were very tired. Both showing that he understands that deep pain, and in the midst – still gives us grace.
I’m not sure how this will change my laundry pile, or the squishy blueberries that were missed – or the dark cloud, but for now I will take these moments of baby snuggling, coffee sipping quiet to confess, to listen, to be filled. Even if it doesn’t completely push the dark cloud away – maybe it is in this time of seeking I will be able to find Him and Hope and Life again.
Sweet Jennifer, I know how heavy those squishy blueberries can feel and how they say things like “failure, too far gone, too dark, rotten.” At those times, it helps to just do “the next thing” and to ask the Lord to go with you that one more step. Ask Him to give yourself the freedom to let the lesser important things go, things like blueberries. He does understand that deep pain and wants to bring us a drink of grace while we find shade and rest in Him.
It won’t do your laundry, but His word will give you rest for your soul and start to bear fruit in the important ways first (like baby snuggling and confessing and listening) and then eventually trickle down to laundry. I want to encourage you to think of one person “with skin on” whom you trust and know looks to God in times of darkness. Share your heavy heart with them and just ask them to pray for you. Please let the Do Not Depart team know if we can encourage you.
I’m going to stop and pray right now for God to be the Lord of your cloud and help you find that hope and life in a new way.
Wonderful post. Spent 2 years under the broom tree after I dried up. His Word dried up – I could barely touch my Bible. Couldn’t even listen to worship music. Drought everywhere – except the sense of His Spirit with me as I cried out to Him about it. The drought bothered me a lot, but I had absolutely nothing within me to do anything about it. Couldn’t fake it if I tried, so I quit trying, quit serving, quit everything, and stayed real, and dry, with God. It was hard. Very few understood where I was at. I am now finally starting to peek out from under the tree to move along again – cautiously though and in a very different way than ever before. His Word is finally coming to life to me again. He is a very gentle Shepherd…
Yes, such a gentle Shepherd, and I’m so glad. It can be really hard for those around us in those seasons to understand or even know what’s happening, and it’s then that we really can’t tell them. I think that’s when the Spirit understands our groanings that are too deep for words. He never leaves us in the drought. Welcome back from under the tree. I hope you’ll enjoy the sweet water of His Word as you quench your thirst.
“God knows we have limits, yet He has no limits.”
This sentence really stands out to me, Julie. And ministers to me. Thanks for your thoughtful words and scriptures here. I’m so thankful we worship a God who is a bottomless pit of grace and power and love.
Love that bottomless pit! It’s the only pit I want to stay in. :)
Julie, Thank you for these words. They couldn’t have come at a better time!
So glad, Mary. The Lord just brought you to my mind yesterday. No … to my heart. Praying you are finding times of rest to refresh. I know you’re in a season of lots of influence, but that can leave us sapped. Praying for you.