Where burnout opens the way to reformation by the power of Christ.

Welcome to your resting place! Find a comfy seat and settle into the rest Christ purchased for you. The Apostle Paul’s letter to the Hebrews is a perfect place to start the journey because he was a worker of workers, a Pharisee of the Pharisees. To him was given the revelation of the works of the Law vs. Sabbath rest. Hebrews 4:9-11

Paul’s journey ended in this sweet resting place, “For I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified.” 1 Corinthians 2:2

• You’re easily irritated. Your negative thoughts about other Christians cause you guilt.
• You look forward to your days off from ministry more than your ministry responsibilities.
• You begin to get behind and make excuses.
• Phone calls, emails, and texts become more burdensome than is reasonable.
• You’re outraged when criticized.
• You begin to suffer physical symptoms: sleeplessness, weight loss from lack of appetite, weight gain from binging, heart palpitations, digestive symptoms, abnormal fatigue, and hopelessness.
• You believe the people around you are the source of all your troubles.
• You resent other Christians for not working as hard as you do.
• You wish you could leave the ministry, but you feel stuck.
• Your time off is not spent with the Lord in prayer and the study of His Word but in pleasing yourself because you “deserve” it.

You’re working too hard.

There is too much on your plate.

People are too critical of you.

The people you depend on are incompetent or lazy.

You just need more time off.

You deserve better for all you’ve done for God.

If your family was happier, you’d be able to serve the Lord better.

You are suffering because you don’t have a good “work-life balance.”

“I lay there that winter afternoon in 1987 without strength. Leaving the house for church that morning had taken great courage, and I now felt drained and depressed. Getting through an average Sunday had become too much for me. Anxiety complicated my every thought.

The strong, capable woman I knew myself to be had vanished in a matter of weeks. I had been busy, confident and brave. Four years earlier, I had started a ministry for women and teens with unwanted pregnancies that had grown into a community-recognized service. My thirty volunteers staffed both a 24-hour hotline and office space downtown.

I fielded phone calls from those volunteers day and night and frequently spoke at churches throughout town to raise awareness and financial support. I was proud of my ability to communicate and accomplish things and often judged other Christians who appeared inactive. Now, this super Christian had vanished, and in her place was a weak, scared and pouty one. I didn’t know then, but I was in the midst of something called “burnout.”

“It’s not fair,” I told God. “After all I’ve done for You, I shouldn’t be suffering this way. You’re not supposed to treat your saints this way. I’ve given you my all – my every minute – and this is the way you’re repaying me? I thought you would protect me!”

I didn’t expect an answer. An answer came, however, and quickly – like a punch to my spirit.

“Both the knowledge of good and evil lead to death.”
Over the next twenty years, the mystery of that word from the Lord was unveiled before my spiritual eyes. It’s simple, yet not easy. The knowledge of good and evil is so woven into our Christian culture and experience that the fabric will take some painful unraveling, but in its unraveling lies something much preferred: The Tree of Life, Who is Christ.

Before this experience, I didn’t think much about the two trees in the Garden of Eden. If you are anything like me, you don’t like to look back to where our problems began. But, again, if you are anything like me, the Lord takes you back to the dust of your beginnings so that going forward is re-founded safely and securely on Him alone.
As those twenty years went by, I began to see how the knowledge of good and evil affected my choices and, worse, my great attraction to it. I often mixed my affection for it with my affection for the Tree of Life without realizing my great error.”

Excerpt from Two Trees Revealed, How Our Knowledge of Good and Evil Keeps Us From Life Through Christ, Carolyn Cote, 2009

By His Mercy,
Carolyn Côté
Certified Biblical Counselor, ACBC, IABC, CCU

We’ve been there, and by the grace of God, we want to help.

We are ready to open God’s Word and walk alongside you as the Holy Spirit opens your eyes to how you’ve ended up burned out and disillusioned.

Reformation and a hope-filled life in Christ is your future–wherever God leads you.