1. A recent survey of the working patterns and stress levels among almost 500 pastors, church-based women’s workers, and youth and children’s workers revealed some concerning results:
- The average respondent was doing double the number of hours they are “officially” supposed to;
- Almost half were
not taking a regular weekly day off;
- One third had experienced burnout;
- 15% were working over 70 hours a week;
- And yet 80% felt guilty they were letting people down by not doing a good job
2. Challenging our society's assumptions is not only helpful for overcoming overwhelm ... it's essential for discipleship. We live in a non-stop, consumer-oriented society. Listen to the late theologian Lesslie
Newbigin: "A preaching of the gospel that calls men and women to accept Jesus as Savior but does not make it clear that discipleship means commitment to a vision of society radically different from that which controls our public life today must be condemned as false."
3. Wisdom from the sufi mystic poet Rumi ... God meets us in our brokenness in ways that people who've never been broken cannot understand:
There is a secret medicine given
only to those who hurt so hard they cannot hope.
The hopers would feel slighted if they knew.
4. Early registration price still available for the Renew Retreat - January 15-20. The Renew Retreat is five days in a luxury condo in glorious Sedona,
AZ. We will talk about how to experience ongoing renewal in our lives, so we can make a difference in the world without making a mess of our personal lives.
Get more information here.
5. Finally, here's more about consumerism and how it makes us unhappy and stressed
out:
"’The eye is not satisfied with seeing, or the ear filled with hearing,’ writes the author of Ecclesiastes (1:7–8), describing the ancient experience of insatiability. We are finite, but our desire is infinite; limited, it seems, mainly by our need for rest. Insatiability is a human condition—but one that the modern market economy magnifies. According to Kenneth Galbraith, the modern market doesn’t so much respond to existing needs by supplying
goods, but rather “creates the wants the goods are presumed to satisfy.” Desire, hunger, and dissatisfaction are the market economy’s fuel. The more fuel it has, the faster it can run, and so it creates the void it seeks to fill.
"The result is a rushing stream of both amazing and not-so-amazing goods and services—along with a perpetual lack of contentment and diminished capacity for joy. The relation between joy and contentment at any given moment is
straightforward: the less content you are, the less joy you will have (though discontentment often precedes joy). Joy celebrates the goodness of what is, what was, or is to come; the market economy fuels insatiability and malcontent, systematically erodes the goodness of what is, and cripples joy.” - Miroslav Volf
