Morning Devotional
June 2, 2005
"Recovering From Burnout" (Part 2) 
    by Don Emmitte

Then he lay down and slept under the broom tree. But as he was sleeping, an angel touched him and told him, "Get up and eat!" He looked around and saw some bread baked on hot stones and a jar of water! So he ate and drank and lay down again. Then the angel of the LORD came again and touched him and said, "Get up and eat some more, for there is a long journey ahead of you." (1 Kings 19:5-7 NLT).

 

The second step in Elijah’s recovery from burnout was that he rested and received nourishment. Emotional exhaustion and depression can often lead us into poor eating and sleeping habits. Before we’re ready to attack the challenge of going on, we often need to get some rest and nourishment. As we pause and acknowledge our need for refreshment, God gives us spiritual refreshment as well.

 

Someone has said: “There’s no music in a rest, but there is the making of music in it. In our whole life melody the music is broken off here and there by ‘rests,’ and we foolishly think we have come to the end of the tune. Not without design does God write the music of our lives. Be it ours to learn the tune, and not be dismayed at the ‘rests.’ They are not to be slurred over, not to be omitted, not to destroy the melody, not to change the keynote. If we sadly say to ourselves, ‘There is no music in a rest,’ let us not forget that there is the making of music in it.”

 

Don’t you remember how often Jesus set this example for us? In the midst of his hectic lifestyle, with people pressing him with every need imaginable, Jesus would often withdraw to a quiet place and rest. Before the final week of his earthly life, Jesus went first to the house of Mary and Martha. I believe he went there because he knew he was physically and emotionally spent. I believe he knew that without rest he would not be able to face the week that lay ahead.

 

We do not have the ability to know the future as Jesus did. However, we can know that when our bodies and minds tell us to rest, it is a sign that God is calling us to be strengthened. “Carry some quiet around inside thee,” the well-known Quaker, George Fox, used to say. “Be still and cool in thy own mind and spirit, from thy own thoughts, and then thou wilt feel the principle of God to turn thy mind to the Lord from whence cometh life; whereby thou mayest receive the strength and power to allay all storms and tempests.”

 

This is great advice for us to practice in this second step of overcoming burnout. Try it.