Why Do We Burnout?

Burnout is a physical or emotional collapse usually caused by stress.

None of us are strangers to burnout.  The exhaustion that you wake up with.  The dread you feel inside when someone knocks on your office door.  You're tapped out and now in physical and/or emotional debt to yourself.

I was listening to the radio on my way into the office today and heard something that didn't surprise me.  Doctors are prescribing recess for children.  That's right, prescription recess.  Kids need time to decompress from the work and stress of school.  It's no wonder if you haven't picked your career by middle school, the chances of you achieving a great career are severely diminished.  You can't make this stuff up.

“Everyone strives for excellence together and accomplishes great things together. If you have accountability without love, you won't have real commitment, buy-in, loyalty, passion, or great teamwork. You'll be more like a dysfunctional family that fights all the time and simply tries to survive each day but doesn't thrive. Eventually, the rules will lead to rebellion and the pressure and stress without support will lead to burnout.” Excerpt From: Jon Gordon. “The Power of Positive Leadership.” 

I would purpose that love is as much a part of the solution as rest or recess.

1 Corinthians 13:4-8 Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away.

1 Cor. 13 really isn't a definition of love as much as it is a description of it.  But think about it.  Wouldn't you thrive in an environment where love was practiced?  This leads me to a couple of questions. 

Have you surrounded yourself with loving people?  

Love doesn't have to imply being sappy.  (Even though love can make you cry.)  Love does mean a kind of giving that is committed to you being your best.  A love that gives before it receives.  A love that doesn't count the cost of sacrifice because the value of who you are will never be less than ones sacrifice on your behalf.  

Are you loving the people who surround you?  

Are you that person who loves others?  Who practices 1 Cor 13?  Who is the example?  I know some might say, "Well, when people love me, then I will love them."  Never going to happen.  First of all, you will always attract people like yourself, and secondly, you will still reap what you sow.  If you want to receive love from others, give it away. 

PRAY:  Dear Jesus, help me love others.  AMEN