Back From Burnout!

Job 14:7-9 For there is hope for a tree, if it is cut down, that it will sprout again, and that its tender shoots will not cease. Though its root may grow old in the earth, and its stump may die in the ground, yet at the scent of water it will bud and bring forth branches like a plant. (NKJV).

I’m back! Sincere apologies for the lack of “Brief Words” coming your way lately. Computer issues and a few other things. But, I trust you will enjoy them and still want them coming to your inbox!

This “Brief Word” has been in the making for about the last seven years! (And severely tested in the last seven months!). It’s an important one I have been waiting a long time for the right time to write.

A Credentialed Minister for over 28 years with a strong sense of call, I have served as sole charge Pastor in three local churches, and as Director of Studies in a Bible School in large city church. When I started ministry those years ago, I thought and totally believed I would serve and preach and minister until the day I die! We (I say we as my wife is an integral part of my ministry – I could not do what I do without her) have seen the Lord do amazing things among His people.

But something happened that I had not planned for nor expected. It changed everything. About seven years ago, my body just said enough. I couldn’t go on, couldn’t do anything. I was an emotional wreck. I was given some time off from the pastoral role we were in at the time (pastoring a local church in a small regional town) and sat in a chair for five weeks resting, sleeping, weeping, wondering, worshipping, trying to pray, but looking out to a wonderful long view of a mountain. They were my darkest days.

My burnout didn’t come from times of success and growth. I’ve read the stories. This seems to be the case in many burnout testimonies. I wasn’t working every night of the week, “burning the candle at both ends”. It happened when life was just pretty much the same old daily weekly monthly grind. But I wasn’t seeing any real advancement in what I was trying to achieve, my vision wasn’t happening. Upon reflection these years after the event, maybe the real reason for me was unrealistic expectations.

We soon moved from that place to where we are now. We both felt like all our life and hopes and dreams were over. They’d been cut off, just like how Job described. He’s saying that there is hope for a tree if it is cut down and that at the scent of water it will grow again. But, in the very next verse he says; Job 14:10 But man dies and is laid away; indeed he breathes his last and where is he? (NKJV). Job is despairing of life so much that he believes a tree can be revived, but not man. For us that experience was painful. When you’ve worked for something, dreamed about it, put your whole life into it for 25 years, and then it is cut off, it is very painful. It seemed as if there would be no way for those dreams to be fulfilled again. We felt just like Job.

But we were discovering God to be amazing. He has an ability to resurrect things. Over time, with God orchestrating things, closing doors and opening others, a recovery and healing was taking place. He has and is resurrecting our dreams and vision and refreshing the calling.

What dreams, hopes, callings, passions, ministries have been cut off? We have discovered that one amazing key that has kept us and brought us through, is found in our text. Job 14:9 … yet at the scent of water … (NKJV). Water brings life. Water is a symbol of the Holy Spirit. So it doesn’t matter how old, how dead, how barren, how growth-less, how lost, how boring and hopeless a situation might seem to us, when God by His Holy Spirit touches that situation, it can – in His time – spring back to life again. We were very low. But only by God’s grace we have maintained a lifestyle of reading God’s Word, worshipping in His house, and connection with other saints. Even when those disciplines seemed fruitless, we just kept doing them.

Let’s paraphrase our text. Job 14:7-9 For there is hope for YOUR tree, YOUR DREAM, YOUR HOPES, YOUR CALLING if it is cut down, LOST, TAKEN AWAY, DEAD that it will sprout again, RESURRECTED DREAMS, HOPES RESTORED, and that its tender shoots will not cease. Though its root may grow old TOO MUCH TIME HAS PASSED FOR THE DREAMS TO BE RESTORED, IT’S TOO HARD, TOO DIFFICULT, IMPOSSIBLE in the earth, and its stump may die in the ground, yet at the scent of water GOD’S WORD, HIS PRESENCE, TIME, REFRESHING, HIS SAINTS, WORSHIP, WAITING, HEALING, PRAYER it will bud and bring forth branches FRUITFULNESS AGAIN, DREAMS HAPPENING AGAIN, LIFE RESTORED like a plant. (NKJV).

We may think burnout is failure. (It is not!). But even failure is not fatal or final! God still loves us just as He always has. God still cares for us and our earthly destiny just as He always has. God’s promises are still dependable just as they have always been. God still has your future at heart, and has great plans for you! Just as He always has. If there is hope for a tree, which in the natural can spring to life again, then in God’s economy with His miracle touch, there is also hope for you and me! There is hope – it is found in Him!