by: Jim Schlottman
2/1/2004

As I receive calls enquiring about our ministries, I speak with many who are experiencing burn-out. So when I heard Dr. Arch Hart said, “burn out is part of God’s plan” it took me back a bit.

We were at our annual Quiet Waters Leadership Family Retreat at Snow Mountain Ranch. Dr. Hart and his wife Kathleen were our featured speakers. Kathleen challenged us early on to look for that one sentence that we could take away from the Retreat. When I heard that statement, “burn-out is part of God’s plan”, it became my one sentence.

If you have experienced burn-out, as I have, it didn’t feel like part of God’s plan at the time. At the time it felt like God was no where around, so what about Dr. Hart’s statement? Even with the perspective of time it is difficult to see that “hard time” as part of his plan. However, as I look back on my experience, I realize that I wouldn’t be where I am today if it were not for that difficult time in my life.

Often burn-out is the result of a series of crises. Oswald Chambers said, “Suppose God brings you to a crisis and you almost endure it, but not completely. He will engineer the crisis again, but this time some of the intensity will be lost. You will have less discernment and more humiliation at having disobeyed. If you continue to grieve His Spirit, there will come a time when that crisis cannot be repeated, because you have totally quenched him. But if you will go on through the crisis, your life will become a hymn of praise to God.”

God does not cause a crisis to come upon us, nor does he cause burn-out. He does however, permit crisis and burn-out to bring us closer to being like Christ.

If Chambers is right, we have burn-out because we didn’t go through the complete crisis. And we have hope that if we go through the crisis, our life will become a hymn of praise to God.

That hope was expressed by a pastor I recently spoke with. This pastor was obviously experiencing severe burn out. When I mentioned Dr. Hart’s comment that “burn out was part of God’s plan,” the pastor very wisely commented, “that gives me hope.” We have hope because with God in the burn-out we will survive and become a hymn of praise.

May God give you hope and peace in your time of crisis or burn-out.

. . . and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:7 (NKJV)