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15: When You're Facing Burnout at Work · Finding God at Work

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(Transcribed by TurboScribe.ai. Go Unlimited to remove this message.) Hi, I'm Chris.
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This is Finding God at Work.
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Just a reminder that Finding God at Work
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isn't just a podcast, it's also an online
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course.
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Check it out at FindingGodAtWork.org.
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Our current series is Divine Disappointments, Facing Pain
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and Sorrow at Work.
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Today I want to talk about the particular
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sorrow of burnout, a writer whose work has
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really helped me as Henry Nowan, Catholic priest
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and contemplative.
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I've quoted him in other books as well.
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I mean, excuse me, in other episodes as
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well.
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I want to quote two of his books
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today.
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One is Gracias, his kind of memoir of
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his time as a missionary in Peru, something
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he and I have in common at a
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missionary in Peru as well.
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And the other is from his book about
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leadership in the name of Jesus.
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So from that first book, Gracias Nowan writes,
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it was in Lima that I learned that
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without prayer and community, all my pastoral activities
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would end up in fruitless burnout and then
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from in the name of Jesus.
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As I entered into my fifties, everyone was
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saying that I was doing really well, but
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something inside was telling me that my success
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was putting my own soul in danger.
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I began to ask myself whether my lack
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of contemplative prayer, my loneliness, and my constantly
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changing involvement in what seemed most urgent were
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signs that the spirit was gradually being suppressed.
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It was very hard for me to see
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clearly, and though I never spoke about hell
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or only jokingly so, I woke up one
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day with the realization that I was living
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in a very dark place and that the
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term burnout was a convenient psychological translation for
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a spiritual death.
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A convenient psychological translation for a spiritual death.
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That phrase leapt out at me the first
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time I read it and it's continued to
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resonate with me.
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If you're like me, you've experienced burnout multiple
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times in your adult life.
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Burnout can be debilitating.
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It can be demoralizing.
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It can lead us to a very dark
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place.
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It can feel like a spiritual death.
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But just like with all the other kinds
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of workplace pain we've looked at in this
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series, I also want to look at burnout
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and ask whether it can be a place
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of spiritual opportunity, whether it's possible for Jesus
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to redeem our experience of burnout so that
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it becomes a place of deep spiritual growth
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and even fruitful mission.
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How could that be?
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How could something as dark and difficult as
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burnout become something fruitful?
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Well, I think first let's just start with
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understanding what burnout is, how it works, where
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it comes from, and then we'll look at
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how Jesus can meet us in it.
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Okay, so for understanding burnout, I'm going to
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be drawing on the same scholars as our
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previous episode about boredom, Wilmar Schafelli and Marissa
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Salanova from their chapter in the textbook, An
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Introduction to Contemporary Work Psychology.
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Here's how they define burnout.
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It's a reaction to chronic job stress that
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is characterized particularly by exhaustion and mental distancing.
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So they kind of identify two aspects of
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it.
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Exhaustion, that's pretty self-explanatory, and mental distancing.
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And they break out what they call mental
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distancing into two more parts.
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So on the one hand, cynicism, when you
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begin to have a cynical attitude about your
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work, right, you're emotionally distant from it, you
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kind of have some disdain for it, and
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then depersonalization.
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But what they mean by depersonalization is depersonalizing
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the people you interact with at work.
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So it's not so much about you and
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your personal identity, although that can be affected
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by burnout, it's you're starting to interact with
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other people as though they're less than human.
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And if you're like me, you've experienced this.
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When you're under the gun, you're trying to
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get tasks done, you're feeling burned out, you
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stop caring about other people, you stop attending
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to their needs.
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In the chapter they cite the work of
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nurses who are very prone to burnout because
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of things like patient-nurse ratios.
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And the higher the number of patients that
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nurses have to care for, the less they're
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able to interact with patients as human beings,
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the less they're able to be present with
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a fully attuned bedside manner, right?
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It just becomes get in there, get the
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tasks done, get out, get to the next
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patient.
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So we've experienced this.
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Where does this experience of exhaustion and of
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mental distancing come from?
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What are those contributing factors to burnout?
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Well, just like with boredom, there are both
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external factors, things that might be beyond our
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control, at least directly, and there's internal factors.
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There's our kind of interior experience, our life
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with God, our life with our emotions, our
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life of meaning that also affects our experience
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of burnout.
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So what are some of those things that
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are in the external category?
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Well, the literature talks about both job demands
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and job resources.
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So job demands are things like your workload,
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the time pressure you're under, the hours, the
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emotional demands of the work itself.
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Just what does work demand of you?
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And then job resources, those are things that
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are available to you in the work environment.
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So things like social support from colleagues and
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your supervisor, feedback to help you do your
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work better, participation in decision making, a sense
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of job control.
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Those are all job resources.
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So a simple way to think about burnout
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is it's what results when your job demands
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outpace your job resources, right?
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When what's being asked of you is greater
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than the inputs that you were given.
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So it's not just about workload and hours,
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although that's definitely part of it.
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It's do you have a compensating amount of
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support for the hours that you're putting in?
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Do you have a compensating amount of participation
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in decision making so you have a sense
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of control over your work, even if it's
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really hard and demanding as you do it?
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If those resources are inadequate for the demands
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that are being placed on you, that's when
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you begin to feel cynical.
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That's when you begin to depersonalize others.
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That's when you get really exhausted.
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Okay, that makes a lot of intuitive sense,
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but there's another category of resources that the
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literature talks about.
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That's personal resources.
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Again, this is this interior dimension.
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So the authors of this chapter, they talk
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about self-efficacy as an example of interior
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resources.
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So two different people, they might have access
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to the same job resources.
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They might be facing the same job demands,
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say two nurses on the same med surge
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floor, both serving a high number of patients
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each.
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And yet one of them might have a
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stronger sense of self-efficacy.
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They have internal resources, personal resources, that help
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them say, even though this is really hard,
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I have what it takes to get this
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done.
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That person is less likely to experience burnout
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than the other person.
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Even though the exterior things are the same,
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it's the interior thing that makes the difference.
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Okay, now just kind of as another context
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and structure piece, I want to review that
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idea of the four quadrants.
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I mentioned this in the last episode, so
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it might be review, but in case you're
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listening to this one without having listened to
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the one about boredom, the authors of this
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chapter kind of lay out two dimensions.
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So if you think of one dimension being
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up and down and that being activation at
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the top and deactivation at the bottom, and
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then the other dimension being left to right
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with unhealthy on the left and healthy on
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the right.
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What we want to experience and work is
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that upper right hand quadrant of engagement, where
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we're activated and we're healthy.
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We have stuff to do, but we also
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have the energy to get it done.
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That's when the resources are commensurate with the
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demands.
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Okay, but we can be active and unhealthy.
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That's workaholism.
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So we have a lot of demands and
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we're meeting it, but we're not meeting it
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in a healthy way with healthy resources.
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We had kind of an obsessive attachment to
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work.
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Okay, then if you're staying unhealthy but then
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you go down into deactivation, that's burnout.
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That's when the high activity, high engagement turns
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into this exhaustion and this mental distancing because
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we can't sustain a workaholic pace of work.
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Okay, so I just think that's a helpful
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way to visualize it.
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Again, you can click through in the show
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notes to a visual PDF on our web
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page for the episode, if that's helpful for
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you.
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But we're kind of asking, okay, if we're
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stuck in this lower left hand quadrant, unhealthy,
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deactivated, how do we move to that upper
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right hand quadrant of healthy activated?
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We know that personal resources can help, but
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for us as followers of Jesus, we don't
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just have personal resources.
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The resources that are interior to us don't
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stop with us.
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We also have spiritual resources, and so that's
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where I want to go in this episode,
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is looking at a few verses from Ephesians
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chapter 1 that talk about the spiritual resources
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we have access to, and then reflecting on
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how that can help us experience God's grace
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in the middle of burnout.
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You see if burnout could even become a
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place of spiritual growth.
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Okay, so this is Ephesians chapter 1.
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It's this long prayer that Paul is writing
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that he's praying for the people of God
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in Ephesus, and in the middle of this
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prayer we get to verses 18 and 19.
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So Paul writes, I pray that the eyes
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of your heart may be enlightened in order
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that you may know the hope to which
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he has called you, the riches of his
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glorious inheritance in his holy people, and his
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incomparably great power for us who believe.
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That power is the same mighty strength he
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exerted when he raised Christ from the dead.
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Okay, I actually got into verse 20 there
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too.
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Okay, so what is Paul saying?
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Well, he packs a lot in there, but
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where we land at the end of the
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verse is the same power that God exerted
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when he raised Christ from the dead.
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That power is at work in us.
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It's called his incomparably great power for us
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who believe.
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So what's our posture?
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Our posture is belief, faith, receiving power from
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God, and it's a power from outside of
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us, but where is it?
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It comes inside of us.
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He says, I pray that the eyes of
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your heart may be enlightened and or that
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you may know the hope to which he
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has called you, the riches of his glorious
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inheritance in his holy people.
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So when we have hope, when we have
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riches, when we have an inheritance, where is
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that?
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That's in us, in his holy people.
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So this power from outside of us comes
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from God.
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It's the power that raised Jesus from the
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dead, and yet it comes inside of us,
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and it gives us hope, and it gives
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us a kind of resources.
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These are financial metaphors, the riches of his
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glorious inheritance.
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In contemporary parlance, Paul might say, you know,
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God is giving you access to his bank
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account.
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We're talking about spiritual resources here, stuff that
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you can get stuff done with.
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Just like with a literal bank account, if
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you've got the card that has access to
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the account, you can go and do stuff
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with that money.
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When you have access to spiritual resources in
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the heavenlies, in Christ Jesus, you can go
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get things done spiritually.
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Okay, let's go back to the experience of
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burnout.
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How do these resources make a difference in
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our experience of burnout?
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I want to look at a couple different
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ways.
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One is kind of a negative path, and
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the other is a positive path.
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So a negative path, when you're in a
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place of burnout, often that sense of self
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-efficacy is compromised.
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You have less of a sense that I
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can get this done, right?
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When you've hit burnout, is when you feel
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like I can't get this done.
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Well, there's good news.
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We don't have to rely on ourselves and
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our own strength, our own ingenuity, to do
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the tasks that lie before us every day.
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We are meant to depend on a power
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greater than ourselves.
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We are meant to depend on the power
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that God gives us, the power that God
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extended, exerted when he raised Jesus from the
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dead.
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So when we're in a place of burnout,
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we come to the end of ourselves.
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Dallas Willard, he used to say that God's
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address is the end of your rope.
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And so even though it's a negative, dark
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experience of coming to the end of yourself,
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it can be a place where you meet
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God because you realize, God is the one
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I need.
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I don't have what it takes to hack
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it, whatever it is, all by myself.
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I need power beyond myself.
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I need God.
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And I've experienced that where burnout itself becomes
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a kind of a spiritual lesson in my
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own finitude, where I've been trying to grit
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it out without depending on God.
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I've been trying to make it happen just
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on my own ingenuity and strength and grit.
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And I can't.
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I can't.
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And when you're in that place of I
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can't, that's where God can really meet you.
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Okay, so that's kind of the negative, dark
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way that these resources can make a difference
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when we're in that place of burnout is
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we realize that we need them.
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We realize we don't have what it takes,
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but God does.
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And what about a more positive way?
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Well, I want to introduce an idea here.
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I learned it from Dallas Willard.
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It's articulated in this quote by Richard Foster,
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who was Dallas's pastor and good friend for
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many years.
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This is from the Renovari Spiritual Formation Bible.
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And it's the principle of indirection.
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Here's how Richard Foster describes it.
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This is a really powerful idea.
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What Richard Foster is saying is there's indirection
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in the spiritual life.
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If we have a goal in spiritual life,
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in this example he says humility, or I
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might say more pertinent to the burnout experience,
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kind of healthy work engagement, you don't always
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get there just by aiming for it directly.
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Instead, you have to kind of get at
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it slant-wise, you have to get at
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it indirectly, by instead practicing a discipline that
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is within your power to do right now.
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And then when you do that, God shows
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up and he acts with his grace to
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make us the kind of person who embodies
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his goodness.
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He brings us closer to that destination when
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we engage a practice that welcomes his presence.
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So with burnout, if the destination we're trying
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to get to is healthy engagement, that upper
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right hand quadrant, I would suggest that by
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principle of indirection, one of the best disciplines
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for us to practice is Sabbath.
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It's actually not when we're at work, but
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when we order our lives to include rest
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away from work, that we open up the
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space where God can work inside of us,
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where he can energize us, where he can
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put things inside of us so that we
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don't go to that cynical, burnt out, depersonalizing
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place.
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So again, it's not so much about what
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you do when you clock in, when you're
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the nurse on the med search floor, or
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when you're walking onto the factory floor, or
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when you're logging in to Microsoft 365 for
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your office job.
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It's less about what happens then and more
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about how are you ordering your whole life
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so that you can experience God's life in
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the midst of your responsibilities.
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And Sabbath is one of those key disciplines
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that helps us order our life.
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It's a time discipline.
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It's a way of saying, I'm going to
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set aside this day, one day each week,
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and not work and open up space for
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God to work in me.
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We don't have time for a super extended
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teaching on Sabbath, but I just want to
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give you two words that can kind of
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latch onto Sabbath.
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These are from my pastor, Trevor McMacken, and
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he probably got it from somewhere else, but
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I don't know where.
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That's that Sabbath is ceasing and celebrating.
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So Sabbath is ceasing from our regular work,
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right?
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Just like God commanded, on six days you
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shall work, but on the seventh, honor the
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Sabbath, you cease from regular work, but then
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you also celebrate the goodness of God.
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So that can look like engaging with God
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in prayer, engaging with God in community, whether
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that's maybe more formal community like church, or
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depending on what day of the week you
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do Sabbath, if it's not a church meeting
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day, just connection with friends, connection with family,
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connection with nature even, that can help you
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reconnect with that that centered place in yourself
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where God dwells by the Holy Spirit.
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Okay, so that's the positive way that burnout
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can become a place of growth is when
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we practice indirection, when we start practicing Sabbath,
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right?
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Intentionally engaging something we can do that we
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choose to do.
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Over time we realize, oh, we're moving out
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of burnout, we're moving into that place of
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healthy engagement.
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Lord Jesus, thank you that you meet us
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right where we are.
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Help us when we're at the end of
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our rope to welcome your presence there, and
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help us take positive steps to practice Sabbath,
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to order our lives so we can experience
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your life, to get to that place where
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our work is thriving.
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Jesus, do your work in us as we
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do our work with you.
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Amen.
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Thanks for listening.
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