May 27 Journal

In the Interim Ministry conference I went to a woman was speaking about signs that people are ‘burned out’ in their profession. All people have a risk of being burned out in their vocations if they do not find methods to renew their commitment, energy and passion for what they do. The first sign she said that we are at burn out risk is that we become irritable:

1) we begin to cut corners;
2) avoid customers, clients, patients or parishioners;
3) begin to mock co-workers and the people we serve
4) begin to denigrate the people we serve
5) Use humor inappropriately
6) We have oversights, mistakes and lapses of concentration
7) We begin to distance ourselves from friends and coworkers.

If we do not find a way to ‘turn it around’ we continue on in our flamed path:
1) our enthusiasm we once had for what we do turns sour.
2) The people we serve become irritants instead of persons.
3) We make complaints about our work life and our personal life.
4) We are tired all the time and we don’t want to talk about what we do, what went on in our day or the future.
5) We start to neglect the people we serve, our family, coworkers and ourselves.

And if we still do not recognize that we are smoldering:
1) Our hopelessness turns to rage
2) We begin to hate people …any and all people
3) Others appear incompetent or ignorant to us.
4) We develop a real distain for the people we serve.
5) We have …. No patience …..no sense of humor …. No time for fun.

This presentation began a conversation that continued well after the presentation ended. Some of us admitted to having burned out of a vocation only to find new life in another vocation. Most all of us knew what it was like to follow a burned out rector. One parish I went into looked like some of the rooms hadn’t been used for ten years! Some of the individuals who had been in a secular vocation before becoming ordained tell me that they thought that laity was just as vulnerable to this burn out as clergy. Whenever we cease to see our vocation (lay or ordained) as a higher calling we can lose perspective and begin to believe that it is all about us! When we become thoroughly crispied we can choose to leave our profession or we can look for a transformation – seeing ourselves and what we do through a different lens. We can either deal with our symptoms of increased health issues, anxiety and worrisome states or we can deal with the cause of those symptoms. It is easy to forget why we do what we do.

When we go through a series of failures and disappointments in our vocation we can forget that God often uses our weakest moments for God’s finest hour!

My friends, life is short.

Life is too short to continue on, day in and day out, without looking to something greater than ourselves. If we don’t think God has called us to do what we are doing maybe it is time to seek a quiet place, still our soul, ask the question and be ready to hear and act on the answer. The question is this: If not this, Lord, then what would you have me do?