Finding Christ’s Joyful Peace in Exhaustion and Burnout
By Jessica Brodie
“I just wish they all understood how much pressure we are under.”
The words, spoken to me by one of my teens, were both poignant and telling. Today’s kids are under an immense amount of pressure—getting not just good but excellent grades, balancing a hefty schedule of sports and academics and family concerns, navigating what it means to literally have the world at your fingertips thanks to the availability of information on our phones and computers, figuring out how to relate to people with kindness in-person after a pandemic of online interaction.
That last one can be so hard—used to saying whatever they want behind a virtual cloak of protection, kids and sometimes adults often feel it’s perfectly normal to speak whatever they think without a filter. I can’t tell you how many times one of my kids has literally heard, “You should just kill yourself.” It’s no wonder cutting, mental health issues, and suicide numbers are exploding in this generation.
These kids are sick in an increasingly sick world… sick in spirit, most of all. Add to that the performance pressure (to make good grades so they can get into college and achieve so-called success, only to find themselves slaves to credit cards, hefty mortgages, and the ever-widening gap between the wealthy and the not), they’re like a pressure-cooker ready to explode.
But it’s not just kids. I think we all feel that way, or have at some point.
Listening to Christian radio the other morning, one of the deejays mentioned something about how exhaustion tops the list of our chief issues right now, reflecting on how hard life feels today.
But the other deejay countered by pointing out this is nothing new: pioneer women felt this way. Pilgrims on the Mayflower felt this way.
He made a good point.
To some degree, we’ve been battling burnout, fatigue, and a work-life balance since the beginning of time. Perhaps the difference is that now, we look at the world around us and think we shouldn’t be feeling overworked or overwhelmed. Or perhaps we’re heaping extra pressure on ourselves—pressure to be or look perfect—and that’s why we’re feeling like we’re going to blow.
It’s not that we’re busier now than our ancestors. Most of us today have running water and motorized transportation, microwaves and dishwashers. We wash and dry our clothes in machines that do the work for us. And yet still, we are so busy—or we feel that way.
Work has always been a part of life. At creation, we’re told, after God made the first man, He “took the human and settled him in the garden of Eden to farm it and to take care of it” (Genesis 2:15 CEB).
The value of a strong work ethic is lifted up from those early days through the Proverbs and well into the New Testament.
Colossians 3:23-24 reminds us, “Whatever you do, do it from the heart for the Lord and not for people. You know that you will receive an inheritance as a reward. You serve the Lord Christ.”
But hard work doesn’t mean a license to overwork, or that we should work so hard that it becomes an idol. For while hard work is good, thoughtless stress and overwhelm are not part of God’s plan for us. In Christ, we have relief from burnout and exhaustion, from that pervading sense of chaos and disarray.
Jesus said, “I’ve said these things to you so that you will have peace in me. In the world you have distress. But be encouraged! I have conquered the world” (John 16:33).
That peace, the apostle Paul wrote in Colossians 3:15, “must control your hearts—a peace into which you were called in one body.”
Pressure and toil are nothing new. But we have a choice in how we react. We can allow it to rule us, like we’re a ship tossed about in a tumultuous sea. Or we can keep our eyes on Christ, the one who calms the storm, and find joy and peace.
As someone dealing with a great deal of turmoil right now, I know which one of these I choose.
I choose Christ.
