One of the music groups I liked as a teenager was Def Leppard. One of their song lyrics says, "it's better to burnout than fade away"
Is it really better to burn out? There's a quiet stillness that comes with faded glory. Fading is gradual and can be easily handled. But burnout, although it happens gradually, you don't necessarily notice the signs. It comes upon you in a blaze of glory? POOF... YOU'RE ON FIRE!!! It's a fire that never goes out because you keep adding coals to it or you allow coals to be added to it.
So, how do you avoid ministry burn out?
Have you ever just been tired of ministering to people?
Sometimes it can feel like there are all of these different tubes attached to various parts of your body from head to toe and there are different people coming to you for ministry and it feels as if they are just sucking the life right out of you. I belive God -- El Shaddai -- is the many breasted one" I only have two - LOL
Your need for solitude and refreshing is perceived as rejection. Even a car needs refueling on a regular basis.
But the other side of this is that it is truly the joy of the Lord that is my strength. It's funny, just when I am at my weakest either physically or emotionally, that is when I hear God the LOUDEST!! I can't hear him when I am complaining on the inside or on the outside. All I hear during those times is MY voice, not God's...so, I get ... quiet.
I literally have to get still and quiet the noise of life around me to really hear His voice.
If it werent for moments of silence and solitude, I think I would go off on everyone and my mouth would be like a machine gun and my words like bullets aimed at everyone in my vacinity. *sigh*
Man, I totally understand the Apostle Paul....Oh wretched (wo)man that I am.
So tell me friends on BPN, how do you avoid or deal with ministry burn out?
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