Speaker: Ben Sigman

Theme: Dealing with Burnout

Weekend Music links on iTunes: Let the Praises Ring by Lincoln Brewster; No Not One by Christy Nockels; Love Came Down by Ben Cantelon; Healer by Kari Jobe.

Read :  Genesis 2:1-3; Isaiah 58:13-14; Luke 4:16

Think: Happy day after the 4^th of July!!  Let summer now begin here in the Northwest!!

Pastor Ben’s sermon this week spoke of burnout and my educated guess is that most of us are familiar with the feeling.  Like many maladies, we sometimes experience the affliction long before we receive and understand the diagnosis.  

When I listened to the sermon today, it struck me that maybe,  just maybe I was suffering from burnout.   And that quite possibly this has been going on for longer than I care to admit. Of the four easy steps I was pretty sure that I was executing all too well on three of them!!  I am hard headed , and I am also a man so that will tell you a lot about how I deal with burnout.  Truth be told I sometimes believe that I can actually work my way out of burnout.  You know just try a little harder, work a little longer, and the glorious rest I desire will suddenly appear….what a disastrous recipe. 

My hard headed approach only serves to fuel the four easy steps in today’s sermon to achieve burnout:

• Get Physically Exhausted
  • Work a little harder….Check …got  that one down
• Shut People Out
  • Work a little longer….Check…no time for family and friends
• Focus on the Negative
  • All this work I have to do…what a drag that is (just picture Eeyore from Shrek if  you will)…my wife confirmed that I can place a check next to this one as well
• Forget God
  • Take a second look at the three steps above and it is easy to see how God can be left behind…I am too busy working…too busy talking…to hear His whisper

We are created in God’s own image (Genesis 1:27) and thankfully God also provided a set of instructions to help us lead a productive and healthy life.  In today’s readings the Bible instructs us to take time on the Sabbath away from work and devote it to our relationship with the Lord.  It is to be a day of worship, fellowship, rest and renewal.  It is one of the ways we can help to avoid burnout and lead the life that God desires for us. 

Do:  Take the time to put work aside for a day each week and focus upon Our Provider, Our  Protector,  Our Creator, and Our Helper. 

Pray: Heavenly Father.  I get my priorities wrong sometimes and I put work above you.  Forgive me.  I desire to put you first above all things in my life.  Thank you for your instruction of rest.   Today I commit to spending more time with you just as you instructed, just as you desire.  In Jesus name I pray.  

The eDevotional is written each week by a team of volunteers from Timberlake Church.

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