God does not want us burning out

By John Birch ––

I see a tendency in people these days, not just Christians, to over-complicate their lives, and I include myself in this. To fill each moment of the day with ‘stuff’, get involved in far too many things, feel guilty about having ‘down time’ and chilling out when I could be doing so much more, afraid of wasting time.

The danger in doing this is that each day becomes way too focused on ‘me’ and leads eventually to burn out. I’m so busy doing all this stuff that I’m getting less aware of the world around me, less aware of how my friends and neighbours are, less focussed on family and even my own well-being. I’m in some way trying to convince myself and God that I’m making the best use of each day of my life. And I’m obviously not!

God does not want us burning out.

God wants us to simply ‘be’. God wants us, in our normal working lives to be listening, to be aware of the world around us, to be willing to help where help is needed, be willing to share words of comfort or faith where appropriate, to be strong, to be focusing on being rather than on me, to become that which God wants us to be.

Grant us, Lord,
listening ears,
eyes that see,
willing hands,
humble hearts,
words that speak,
faith that stands.
Help us, Lord
to be everything
that we should be.