Caring, godly people hit bottom and burn out sooner or later. I always have admired my dad for his faithful following of the Lord and service to the kingdom. He shared with me that there was a time when he felt burned out but kept walking with God and pulled through.

A while back, I was pretty depressed. I felt that, based on how my children were doing, I was a complete failure as a parent. The church did not want anything that I had to offer. Work just wanted a pill pusher, not a counselor, my back was always hurting. 

I started to feel sorry for myself and could relate to Jonah, Moses, and Elijah, “God why don’t you just take me?” I knew that suicide was not an option and even that felt like being trapped. It felt that everyone wanted me only for what they could get from me and not for myself.

So what helped?

I guess I just kept walking and decided that Jesus was enough even if I never accomplished great things or had lots of people want to hang out with me. I am doing better at keeping my focus on the fulfillment-to-come when I see him face to face.

How do godly people get burned out?

Well for one, I circle round and round on things I can’t control. Second I make mountains out of small stuff. Third, I suppress issues I should see, accept the reality of, and move on.

• In regards to the present: I procrastinate.
• In regards to the past: I bury my feelings.
• In regards to the future: I stick my head in the sand. “I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it.”

I know that I am not to WORRY about tomorrow but it is OK to prepare and do today things that are relevant to tomorrow.

A prudent man foreseeth the evil, and hideth himself: but the simple pass on, and are punished.

Proverbs 22:3

Don’t Procrastinate

My daughter Cheri is wise beyond my years. A while ago I was thrilled to have the chance to teach a Sunday school class. I’ve been going to this church for over a year and finally had a chance to contribute something out of my God design. I prepared well, thought I did a good job, and was excited about continued opportunity to give to my brethren. The next week pastor called and said to Lois, “Have Verle bring back the teacher’s manual we won’t need him to teach again.”

Being the fragile person I am, I was feeling hurt and was going to take the rest of the week to build up to asking Pastor what I’d done wrong. That would have used up enormous amounts of serotonin to suppress my feelings, would have gotten in the way of performing well at work, and then I would have wound up dealing with a bigger problem come Sunday when Pastor realized that I had been hurt all week without calling him.

Cheri encouraged me to check with Pastor and not procrastinate. I called him and he was just thinking that I was a busy doctor and he’d appreciated my help and found someone else to cover.

I need to let go of fussing with things I can’t control. I need to live in the here and now and take the negatives, not suppress them but fix what God enables me, set proper limits on its ability to hurt me and others, and accept myself and God’s sovereignty when I can’t fix it. I then need to take the positives and appreciate, savor and invest in them as gifts to me from God, not wishing they were better or other.

I don’t want to stuff my feelings, but before opening up memories of past abuse, it is wise for me to have a pastor or counselor help. If I just uncover things and get agitated and stop thinking about them, they will go back into my memory more poisonous than they were.