Burnout Benefits?
James 1:2-4: “…is your life full of difficulties and temptations? Then be happy, for when the way is rough, your patience has a chance to grow. So let it grow…For when your patience is finally in full bloom, …you will be…strong in character…” (TLB).
The jack pine and lodgepole pine trees produce seed-filled pine cones that may cling to an overloaded tree for twenty years. Yet germination never occurs until the intense heat of a forest fire causes the cones to shed, dropping seeds to the fertile cooled ashes below. Only after the fire does new growth take place.
Can anything good result from our human burnout? Out of the white heat of our burnout comes the opportunity for new growth to take place. When we admit we cannot do it all, we realize our need for help from others and from God. We stop long enough to enjoy life, and eventually learn to be grateful. Burnout allows us the opportunity to reevaluate our priorities and develop greater effectiveness. It make take a long while for us to appreciate the benefits, but the blessings are there if we stop to recognize them.
Lord, although you did not cause my burnout,
you loved me through it
and I am thankful.
Help me believe that I can be blessed through these difficulties.
Copyright Joan C. Webb
For more from Joan Webb visit www.joancwebb.com