The Weekly Word: Battling burnout

By Tim Purcell, Superintendent of the Iowa/Minnesota District of The Wesleyan Church

“Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day.”

— 2 Corinthians 4:16 (NIV)

A Tacoma, Washington, newspaper carried the story of Tattoo, the basset hound, some years ago. Tattoo’s owner had shut the dog’s leash in the car door and took off with the hapless hound still outside the vehicle.

A motorcycle officer noticed the vehicle with the dog dragging behind it.

“The basset hound was picking them up and putting them up and putting them down as fast as he could,” he said. He chased the car to a stop, and Tattoo was rescued, but not before he had reached a speed of over 20 mph!

I used to own a basset, and I can say with authority that they aren’t built for that kind of speed.

My apologies to all of you dog lovers for that story, but it’s a good word picture of the way too many of us live, feeling like life is dragging us along and we have to keep running, just to survive. So we just keep going, picking them up and putting them down just as fast as we can, living on the edge of burnout.

The term burnout has an interesting origin. It describes when a rocket or jet engine flames out when it runs out of fuel and the term has come to describe the combination of physical, emotional and spiritual exhaustion usually due to prolonged stress or frustration.

You go all out until you burn out.

The apostle, Paul, says that the key to avoiding burnout (not losing heart) is to experience inward renewal on a daily basis. That means taking time for physical, emotional, relational and spiritual renewal.

Remember, you’re not a reservoir, you’re a channel; if you’re not taking in, you have nothing to give out.

Maybe you’ve heard somebody say, “I’d rather burn out than rust out.” Sounds noble I guess, but that’s a lousy choice. I’d rather not do either; I’d rather finish strong.

Max Lucado paints a word picture using three different tractors to illustrate how life is best lived:

“My life was given me to spend for God. I have no intention of hoarding it or wasting it, but I do intend to spend this one life wisely.

“In my agricultural town, a tractor pull is a big event. The idea is to see which tractor can pull a weighted sledge the greatest distance. Sometimes in the midst of a pull the massive engine will dramatically flame out from the strain placed on it. In a mo­ment it is good only for the scrap heap.

“In the play yard at our church rests an ancient little tractor embedded in the ground for the children to play on. Long ago it saw its last working day. One day it quit working, and now it is so rusted it cannot work.

“On my uncle’s fruit ranch in Washington resides another old tractor. This beat-up Ford gave me rides around the or­chard nearly 30 years ago, and it still putters around the orchards, hauling bins of apples and mowing hillsides of weeds.

“Thirty years from now, I want to be that Ford tractor. I may not make the noise or even accomplish the magnificent feats of the unlimited-class tractor, but I want my motor running for the long haul. I have fields to work for many years.

“Let me be that reliable and effective little Ford that hauls apples year after year. I don’t want to burn out or rust out; I want to hold out, to finish the race.”

Amen to that! May we all learn the secret of being renewed day by day so we can hold out and finish the race.