What terrified me is that I knew many in ministry and life had gone down this road before me and some of them never made it back.įor them, ministry was done. It was so disorienting I didn’t know what to do. I had been tired before, but I had never truly been burned out.

Like most people who experience burnout, it felt like a strange land. My motivation and passion dropped to zero. People who weren’t that close to me didn’t realize it was happening.īut I knew something inside me had broken, and I didn’t know how to fix it. I never lost my faith (I just couldn’t feel it). I could get out of bed every day, and I did.Īs a Christian, I kept praying and reading my bible. Perhaps it wasn’t a stereotypical depression. In that fateful summer eleven years ago, I found the edge, and as I was falling, I knew this time I realized I couldn’t pull myself back.Īlthough I’m not a person who suffers from depression, I’m sure I would have gone to the doctor and received a diagnosis of clinical depression that summer when I fell off the edge. That approach worked just fine until the summer of 2006, when it didn’t. I would get tired – out of balance – but when I saw the edge, I could always pull myself back. People had always warned me I would burn out. The challenge is, once you cross the line, it’s so difficult to get back.Įleven years ago, I entered into the darkest period of my life. There’s a fine line between being tired and actually burning out. Ever wonder if you’re burning out? I know a lot of leaders and people who wonder that.

And your world will burn