By Jade Angelo Gascon
Executive Assistant, On Eagle’s Wings Foundation
It’s easy to burn out. That may be one of the truest statements that can be made about being a church volunteer. And I realized lately that, aside from being true, it’s also experiential.
These past days have been deadly toxic. I’ve been so busy doing a lot for my youth church you’d think I’m aspiring for canonization in the distant future. After organizing a youth service, I had to write news articles, design a number of posters, coordinate my teams and do counseling. Pulling off a stunt like this would often compel me to stay for long hours in the church office. Add to that the occasional reprimands and some petty squabbles we all run into once in a while as a result of miscommunication, stress, or sheer entanglement in a sticky web of criss-crossed responsibilities. With hefty tasks piling up one after another, who wouldn’t burn out?
I’ve been quickly burning out.
But I guess that’s really what happens when the quality of what we do for the Lord becomes something less than what should be done for the Lord. It’s not mediocrity. Rather, it’s hypocrisy.
We become hypocrites when our hands “serve” God, but our hearts are far away from Him; when we are energetic slaves of the kingdom but couldn’t care less to spend some quiet time as servants of the King. Sincere service to God here becomes fraught with doubt and discredit. Am I really serving God or have I just been a servant of my responsibilities?
Neither meeting deadlines nor fulfilling responsibilities should replace God’s glory as our motivation to serve Him. Tasks don’t make good masters. If they become the gods to which our service pays homage, they will drain our vigor to the point of exhaustion—burning us out without mercy.
“Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord,” Romans 12:11 encourages us. It’s easy to burn out if your heart isn’t ablaze for the right purpose and consumed by Holy Fire. Correct and humble attitude in Christian service is founded on prayer and Bible meditation that produces strong bond with God. That is the one true passion we should burn with.
It’s true, it’s easy to burn out. That’s why it’s important to consciously declare a “break” from your normal work routine periodically, and on a daily basis. Jesus did this by calling on his Father in heaven, regularly, everyday. And He went to a secluded place to do this, to be alone with His Father. On other occasions, he slept – even in the midst of a storm. Many times, He sat down with his disciples and engaged them in dialogues. There is much to learn from Jesus especially how He handled discipleship not only as a means for preparing His followers for their future work but also as a means of “breaking” from His hectic routine of healing, touching the lives of multitude of people, and spreading the good news about the Kingdom of God.
That’s fresh thought. Taking a break as a means of discipling