Pastor Joshua Goodin
“Are You Burnt Out" Pt. 4
How to Avoid Burnout
Exodus 18:17-18, 24 (NIV)
*People who really love you, know when you’re weary. You can’t hide it from the people who are truly concerned for you. You can fool some people, but the people that really know you, you cannot fool them when you’re tired, weary, and burnt out. You may feel like they’re getting on your nerves but understand that they have such a concern for you they don’t want to see you get to a place where you’re burnt out. When people see you weary, they will come to you. Can the people in your life tell you when you need to sit down, and you actually do it? Don’t expect people to be good stewards over your time if you’re not a good steward over your time. You can’t expect people to do right by you if you can’t do right by yourself. You want people to listen to you and take your advice, but you don’t apply the advice to your own life. You have to receive it yourself before you give it. Stop trying to give people advice that you don’t take yourself.
*One of the downsides of being strong is the thought that there’s nothing you can’t do alone. You think you can do any and everything on your own. Do you struggle with asking for help? One reason is you expect people to do things like you. Another reason is you may have been disappointed in the past and you refuse to be disappointed again. Regardless of what you’ve gone through in the past, there are more disappointments ahead. Don’t become comfortable when people always rely on you. You try to be all things to all people and that’s why you’re so tired. Trying to be everything for everybody will age you and being all things for all people you forget yourself. DARE: For the rest of this year, put yourself first. Make yourself a top priority.+-
*When you’re burnt out your focus is off, and your tolerance for people is short. When you are experiencing burnout, it makes you want to avoid being around people. There are people who have been in your life for good long moments of time, but you don’t listen to them. You expect kids to listen to all of your instructions as an adult, but as an adult, you struggle to listen to other adults, because you are constantly questioning people’s motives. Everything that looks good isn’t good.
*What areas of your life can you delegate? It’s a balance, delegating what you can delegate. You can’t delegate to everybody; you can only delegate to people that are walking in their gifts and assignments. You delegate to people who show up. If you never see someone, why would you ask them to do something? When they are present it shows you that they are committed and that you can trust them. Be careful of leadership that wants you to depend on them and not God. The church is not built on a person or a personality, it’s built on the rock which is Jesus. A good leader is concerned about the future not just the present. Sometimes God must push leaders out because you won’t move out of the way. Leaders need to have leaders, someone who will check you and tell you when it’s time to move out of the way. Someone to tell you when you’re doing too much, and you need to delegate, or you will become burnt out.
*Weariness can lead to burnout. Don’t be afraid to listen to the wisdom of people, the reason they have wisdom is that they’ve been where you’re going. Some people are wisdom bearers who are too ashamed to tell where they’ve been. You don’t have to be ashamed because you already came out of it. You can’t have a testimony if God doesn’t allow you to go through some things, and he allows you to go through them so you can help someone else avoid the paths and pitfalls you have been through in life. You went through it so you could tell somebody about it. You will not get to the place you’re supposed to be if you don’t make some changes. Your life in its totality is the way it is because you won’t apply what God has been setting you up to hear. Sometimes you don’t want to hear certain things, but if God tells you to do something, do it. You are exhausted because you have been disobedient.
