Burnout!, burnout is real! What is it though? So often we hear that people today get so overworked that they burnout. They get depressed, they begin being disgruntled with jobs, their lives, their families suffer, everybody suffers. I’m pretty positive the divorce rate, and any number of terrible statistics have increased dramatically in the last few years because of burnout. We know there is a problem and we have everyone around telling us That we need to relax, and reorder, and rest. And as far as that stuff goes, I agree we need all those things. However, without a good understanding of what burnout is, we may find ourselves fighting the wrong battle and right back in a worse state than before. If burnout is simply being overworked, then there are steps you can take there, but being overworked is the easy explanation for burnout, but not necessarily the real explanation for what it is. Burnout more often than not, has less to do with the amount of work that you do, and way more to do with the compensation from that work, and I am not always talking about money here. What I am talking about is expectations, not realized. Something we care about not going the way we expect, want, or believe it should go, and our contribution not recognized at the level we think they should. These are more often than not what lead to burnout. 

In my personal life, I had grown up with a set of expectations. Some set by me, some set by my parents, my culture, etc but regardless of how they got there, they were there, and for whatever reason those expectations were not met. My frustration, and trying to live up to those expectations led me to burnout. No amount of rest or break was fixing it. It would help take my mind off the issues for a little while, I would rededicate for a while, but ultimately nothing changed. I was still burnt, only now I wasn’t even telling myself that that is what it was p, because after all I had been taking rest, taking time for myself, my family, etc. My burnout then unchecked,  led me to make increasingly worse decisions, and led me into the darkest places I’ve ever been in my life. It would be over 10 years before The Lord ended up rescuing me from that path. And the rescue was through what would be the hardest time period I have thus far had to go through. A time period that  gave me an entirely different, yet very similar life but with a completely new perspective, and worldview.

Today the Lord has me working as a barber, I have been many professions over the years, and as much as I love the one I am in, if the Lord uproots me it will not be the first time. However the last few years in the barbering industry has given me an illustration of what I am seeing in regards to burnout. 

A few years ago now, barbering became a bit of a trendy industry to get into, this was right about the same time social media started to explode into everyone’s lives. All of a sudden barbers became pseudo celebrities, and influencers, and a whole wave of people became barbers that wanted to use barbering as a platform to springboard into something big. These people had a lot of passion for barbering and the industry, and really hit it the social media world hard. It made barber after barber attempt to do the same thing, and for a while it made us excited to be a part of what seemed like a bit of growing subculture. Over time though so many found that the reality of living as a barber was much different, than what they were seeing on social media. It wasn’t as flashy as it looked in instagram pictures. Many realized that they would not become influencers, there would be no big endorsements and it was actually really hard work. It was servants work. Which did not match up with what some thought when they got into the profession. What resulted was a lot got burnout. They became bitter, some got lazy, some got entitled, all of them thought they were worth more than their clientele were paying them. However they had been sold on a life  that is not the life of a barber. The reality of being a barber is a much slower life. A life dotted with the growth of the kids in your chair. A life spent in service to the neighborhood, loving your neighbor in a very practical way. The life of a barber is not a flashy life. It’s an honest life. It’s not an aristocrats life, but a peasants life. You are the collector of stories, and emotions from the very heart of the neighborhood you serve. You laugh when life is good and the neighborhood thrives, and mourn when your neighborhood is hurting…. This is something that the trend could not convey. This is something that words can’t accurately express. So when the trend was over, and the reality set in, some very talented barbers reevaluated and walked away from the trade. Some restrategized and kept trying, and some realized the truth of the profession they were in found a love for the profession as it truly is and are having some of the most rewarding careers of their lives. 

I write this to pastors because I see the same thing going on with you guys. I see people who get in with expectations, with ambitions, with goals. I see talented, charismatic and intelligent people, and over and over I see you deconstruct, or get watered down, or get so ambitious that you train wreck your congregations. I see so many pastors spinning their wheels trying everything they can to keep up with the joneses of Christendom, and to make their mark and be used mightily by the Lord, careening headlong with a wall they refuse to see coming. Many don’t see the destruction that their fall, the fall of a shepherd can wreak in a congregation. Many don’t understand the heartache and loss and struggle the downfall of a pastor causes to his people he has been entrusted with when he does these things. 

It is my belief that much like those barbers, pastors are going to hit burnout. It is part of our culture. We were all raised with Harry Potter syndrome (insert fight club speech), we all were raised to believe we are special. Even in church God has had some magical plan of greatness for each one of us. It infects all of us to some degree or another. So I believe burnout in our culture is inevitable. We see it in every profession, at every level. We are the richest, most powerful, most affluent, and at ease people the world has ever seen, and yet we are the most unhappy, depressed, and self destructive people. How you handle the inevitable unrealized expectations and burnout is what I am hoping to help with here, not to stop it from happening. In the barbering analogy I said that some saw the profession for what it was, and realized it wasn’t for them and moved on, we see that all the time, pastors move on into other fields everyday. I am not even saying that is a bad thing everytime, sometimes it’s for a season, and they are restored to service. Some barbers doubled down on their ambitious pursuits, this is where I see most of you heading if I am being honest, and it is my belief that is just a prolonged way into the first group, so I don’t want to waste much time there. The last of you I hope will come out on the other side of burnout with a more clear understanding of what your job actually is, what the realities of that job are, and a renewed dedication to being faithful, and steadfast in your calling, and as the Lord seems to like to use fools to humble the wise sometimes, I hope that this gentle reminder from a servant barber will help you to understand the weight and scope of your calling, as so many of you in your profession have helped me to understand the weight and scope of mine. After all to some he gives 5 talents, to some he gives 2, and to others he gives 1, is it up to us which we are? Does it matter which you are as long as you are one to whom he gives?