Selfishness and Burnout (or “I always take the biggest brownie”)

When looking through the linen closet, I always take the biggest, fluffiest towel. When taking a brownie, I always go for the coveted biggest middle one. When parking my car I always go for the best spot in the lot, sometimes strategically racing other vehicles to get there.

Selfishness is as much a human instinct as breathing, dreaming, or popping bubble wrap; to battle this default position is to declare war on our very nature. Still, Christ calls us to wage that war, even though He’s already achieved the victory.

Burnout is often blamed on the demands of the ministry world, but we would be foolish to discount our role in this malady, our selfishness is a major contributing factor. Scripture cautions us about thinking too highly of ourselves (Romans 12), yet we pastors are frequently consumed with perceived slights, recognition, people-pleasing, and getting what we believe we deserve. Certainly such sin propels us deeper into burnout.

If we want to escape or avoid burnout, we should take a good look at our own hearts.  And maybe leave the biggest brownie for someone else to enjoy.

Impenitence (or “people not hating sin”)

The impenitent heart is the calloused, barely beating, often scarred, rotting lump of flesh found in the chest cavity of those who have grown cold toward the Holy Spirit. To pastors, it is a black hole, a mysterious joy-sucking vortex found within far too many of his congregants. Impenitent hearts are people who have been taught truth, claim to believe that truth, but live indifferently to it. It’s the Sunday School teacher who can educate his or her 4th grade class about tithing, but their home budget doesn’t include the church. It’s the Youth Pastor who teaches purity two hours after viewing porn in the church office. It’s the church-goer who listens to a sermon about being the salt and light of the world then goes to work where not one person knows he or she even goes to church.

The byproducts of marrying knowledge with indifference are hypocrisy and judgmentalism. Niel Cole once stated that “we in the Western church are educated beyond our obedience.” How many pastors make this same observation every single week? Our congregations know truth, we teach it to them week after week, sermon after sermon, study after study, and yet where is the life change? Where are repentant hearts? Where are the called ones rising up?

When I discovered my students’ Twitter feeds it hit home for me: My students were hearing/memorizing/teaching God’s Word, but it’s impact was nowhere to be seen in the godless logs of their lives among the F-Bombs, OMGs, party pics, and cyber-bullying. I had to ask myself some difficult questions: How do I go about facilitating the transformation from impenitent hearts to repentant hearts? How much responsibility do I have for my students behavior? Do I call my students on their godless behavior? Can I start drinking now, too? What exactly is a S/O and a RT?

Still working on the answers.