THE SIGNS OF BURNOUT!

After every mountaintop there is a valley. After every high there is a low. With success comes stress. The good news is that the Bible tells you Elijah was just like you. He was a human being, he wasn’t supernatural. God used him in some miraculous ways but he was just a normal human being. So you can look at his life and see the causes or the signs of burnout and the cure for burnout. You may not need this message today but there is probably somebody you know that’s going through emotional burnout right now. This is one of those messages you hold on to so when you go through the dark days, you pull out the outline and read what God said to do.

THE SIGNS OF BURNOUT! What are the signs of burnout? You can see them in Elijah’s life. When you see them in your life you know you’re headed in the wrong direction.
1. You depreciate your worth.You put yourself down mentally. There’s a little tape going on in your mind that says over and over, "I’m a nobody. My life doesn’t matter. I’m insignificant. I don’t count. I have no value." It plays over and over in your mind. When you start doing that, you know you’re headed for burnout.

1 Kings 19:4, "Elijah came to a broom tree, sat down under it, and prayed, `Take my life. I’m no better than my ancestors.’" Circle "I’m no better." He’s comparing himself to his ancestors and saying, "I’m no better than those guys!" That tells you one of the first causes of burnout -- comparing. When you start comparing yourself to somebody else, you’re setting yourself up for emotional burnout. What you tend to do is compare your life with the accomplishments of other people: "I’m not doing enough." You compare your problems and your trials with the relatively easy lifestyle you think somebody else is having. They’re just hiding their problems. You compare your talents and your gifts and think how meager they are compared to the super star quality of the person next door, the other guy or woman in the office.

But the worst thing you do is when you start comparing your expectations with the way life has really turned out. When you start looking at the way life turned out with the way you expected it to be, you’re setting yourself up for burnout. God says don’t do it. Don’t depreciate your worth.
Once you start comparing the second things you start doing is criticizing yourself. You are your own worst critic. Your worst critic lives between your ears. You tell yourself, "I must... I should ... I have to ... I ought to ... I’ve got to ... " Then when it doesn’t happen, you move to phase three, to feeling guilty about all the work you haven’t gotten done. Do you ever have so much to do on your To Do list that there’s no way possible you’re going to get it all done? But then when you don’t get it all done, you feel guilty because you don’t get it all done. You’re setting yourself up for burnout.

2. We underrate your work. 1 Kings 19:19 "I have worked very hard for the Lord God of the heavens but the people of Israel have broken their covenant with You and have torn down Your altars." Elijah was a man of God, a teacher of the truth. Yet he blamed himself for things that weren’t his fault. He was to tell the people what God wanted them to do but they weren’t listening and the nation was falling apart morally because they had some bad leaders. They had brought in all kinds of paganism. He’s teaching and preaching and they weren’t changing and he blames himself.
Learn that you’re not responsible for others response. You’re responsible to simply tell others the truth. Once they walk back into their world that’s their business. In fact, you wouldn’t want to know what each person is doing during the week. It would really depress you. You’re not responsible for their response.

This is the second major cause of burnout -- trying to control everything. Comparing is number one. Trying to control everything is number two. It’s the Atlas Syndrome where you’re acting as if the whole world rests on your shoulders. Trying to make sure everything’s going to turn out all right or you have to hold everything together or have to work everything out. If it is to be, it’s up to me. You think you have to make it all work out. You’re setting yourself up for burnout. When you try to be general manager of the universe. This is a burden God never intended for you to carry.