Grace for Burnout
251 | “Lay On the Couch and Talk”
Find God's Grace in Your Burnout
Ever feel completely gassed, even after a huge win? The prophet Elijah sure did. Fresh off his spiritual Super Bowl on Mount Carmel, he crashed so hard he was ready to quit for good. But God's response wasn't a pep talk — it was a hot meal and an invitation to take a nap. What does this story teach us about the anatomy of burnout and the problem with "hustle culture"? Join us for a surprisingly practical and personal look at finding God's grace — and maybe a good nap — when you've hit the wall.
Takeaways
The Big Idea: When you're spiritually and emotionally exhausted, God's first response isn't a demand for more strength, but an invitation to receive His gentle, practical care.
This Week's Challenge: Identify one thing you can do to address physical or emotional exhaustion — take a nap, go for a quiet walk, have a restorative meal.
-
Introduction and Welcome
Bryan: This is turning out to be Ryan and Bryan's lay on the couch and talk about our feelings issues corner. supposed to be a lighthearted way of starting the show, but boy,
Ryan:
Bryan: Well, hello everyone and welcome to the Bible Geeks podcast. This is episode 251. I'm Bryan Schiele.
Ryan: I'm Ryan Joy.
Bryan: And thanks so much everyone for tuning in.
Exploring Elijah's Burnout
Bryan: Today, we're talking about Mount Carmel and the great prophet Elijah who hit the wall. He was exhausted and he was isolated and he told God that he wanted to quit.
His whole story is one of the most honest depictions of burnout in the entire Bible.
Ryan: Yeah, it is. Today we're getting personal with this story because it really resonates deeply with both of us. So we'll explore the anatomy of burnout through Elijah's experience and discover how God's surprisingly gentle response can guide us toward recovery when we're at our breaking point.
Bryan: All right, this is gonna be a heavy one, Ryan. You ready to go?
Ryan: Yeah, we're going to get right into it.
Personal Reflections on Burnout
Ryan: So early on in the brainstorming for this season, you had a whole plan of all of these different figures of faith and moments, and I told you, "I'll tell you right now,
Elijah is a study I need right now, and this topic of 1 Kings 19 and the grace for burnout, it was just like such a flashing light.
God has sent this for you from Bryan's brainstorm for us to have a conversation that is going to be encouraging. So I am excited about getting into this topic.
Bryan: sometimes you're feeling something and you run across a story or you make a connection in your own study and it's like, yep, that's what I needed to hear right now.
And I think that definitely lands with what you're saying there. You know, for me, I think this story hits home right now just from the standpoint of so many of things in my life have changed. That's a conversation Sherilyn and I were having actually recently was how many things in our life are different than they used to be even a few years ago.
And for a lot of people, change is not easy. And so it's a way for burnout to slip in there when you've gone through a lot of moments that are just really high energy, high attention, high needs kinds of things. And then to kind of stop and you realize suddenly, wow, I'm gassed. Like I'm exhausted. And I don't know, is that why for you this has landed so strongly, like change?
Or is it just kind of a general push that's been kind of building and building and you just haven't had a chance to
Ryan: No, I think for me, all of the elements of this moment in the life of Elijah really resonate. The ministry highs that then came to a crashing low where he was so discouraged. I think that the sense of loneliness, not in the sense of like, "Oh, nobody else cares about the Lord," or "Nobody loves us." We are very loved, and I always feel loved here and everywhere that I've been, and I don't think that I'm so special that I'm the one that cares about these things in the church the most.
But sometimes in the role that I'm in, I can end up feeling sort of isolated, or me and Adrian together can, where people will say, "Hey, we need to do this stuff." And we're like, "Okay, let's do it." And then we pour ourselves into it and look around, and not because they don't care, but because life is happening.
The people we thought were our partners sometimes aren't part of it. And then we look around, and maybe there isn't much participation in these initiatives that we felt like we all started. And then it becomes even more complicated, kind of like the Epaphroditus-Philippians situation, where he loves them, and they love him, and they're all worried about each other, where we are wanting to make these things a success, but then people who are our friends, who are our brothers and sisters, are feeling bad or guilty because they're not supporting this thing that now we're invested in.
it's like two parties operating on different wavelengths or at different stages of the process. you're not like fully aligned with other people and like they might not be treating it as important as you are, you're treating it like super important or not as much as them.
Bryan: Or like sometimes just that difference in the way that things line up and people treat situations can cause tension So I've been there for sure. This is This is turning out to be Ryan and Bryan's lay on the couch and talk about our feelings issues corner. supposed to be a lighthearted way of starting the show, but boy,
Ryan: that was a bad icebreaker, if that's what
Bryan: a conversation about burnout. I have all these feelings.
Here's the Story of Elijah's Burnout
Bryan: Anyway, let's move into the story of "First Kings 19" because I think what we're gonna get into here is really gonna start to resonate with a lot of the stuff we've just been talking about, about change and about different workloads and all these kinds of relationship issues that might be going on.
Elijah, he knew what we're talking about here. So we're gonna tell the story here from "First Kings 19" and this is I think what we're calling the anatomy of burnout. And I like that thought process here. Why don't you walk us through the first part of this story that I don't often start with, but I think it's the precursor to a lot of what's going on, the crash in part one.
Ryan: Yeah, he has just had this huge victory. God used Elijah in a major way, famously, right? And the showdown with the prophets of Baal, God's doing miracles. Elijah them what it is. I mean, he just lays it out there bare and mocks them, and makes it clear to all of Israel who the true God is. And then Ahab and Jezebel, you know how that power couple are, they go and start threatening and looking for him, and he runs away.
And he ends up praying under a broom tree here in 1 Kings 19, verse 4, and he says, "It is enough now, O Lord. Take away my life." And so, you know, like we were talking about the way you can have sort of a high adrenaline that brings a crash afterwards, the low, and this is really happening to such a point that he doesn't want to live anymore, which, I've never been at this point.
You see figures of faith like Job, like Jonah, and weird melodrama that he has, and here, like Elijah, asking God, this is his prayer, a prayer that God wisely will not answer for God to kill him, for God to end his life.
So he is at his wits' end. He is at that point where, like Moses before him, he is done with this work and doesn't know what to do, but at least he goes and turns to God and takes this weariness and frustration before the Lord. So, why do you think God includes such brutally honest prayers in Scripture instead of, like, clean them all up?
I mean, this is a pretty raw picture of the prophet here.
Bryan: Isn't it interesting how God doesn't pull punches with sharing this story with us? 'Cause this isn't like Elijah's shining moment. he's just gotten through doing one of the most amazing things in this. I always think of this as like the Super Bowl of SmackDowns where it's like, bring it on everybody else, prophets of Baal.
Like you can't even hold an actual candle to God. You know, you literally cannot even light this sacrifice on fire. God is completely in control here. And so it's like, what more accomplishment does Elijah need to have had in his life than this amazing moment that he's able to just lay the gauntlet down and turn to his own people and say, you guys need to choose who you're gonna serve.
Make a choice here. And then just walks away. And it just so quickly turns around from this positive story to such a negative situation for him. And it didn't really take very much. And for me, I see God's wisdom in sharing this story with us because I feel like we need to know that when we're on, I'm gonna use the phrase, please don't take it further than I'm intending.
When we're on a high, when we're at like a really peak point of our spiritual service and things are going great and everything is like locked and loaded and we're just like, we're hitting it, right? That's about the time where we need to watch out the most. And I feel like that is something we don't talk about enough.
That, isn't it like the lesson of Solomon? The people were just at like the most amazing peak and pinnacle of their wealth. And at the moment when Solomon, turns and starts to turn the hearts of the people away and right after Solomon, it's just, that's when it all crumbles apart.
And for me, spiritually, that is just such tendency. And I think that's why God puts this in here because I need to know like when stuff is going awesome, it's not like being a Debbie Downer about it, but dude, understand that something could come that will just completely distort all your thinking.
Ryan: Himbu thinks he stands, "Take heed lest you fall." If, yeah, if you're riding the roller coaster and you're not anchored in the Lord, you have no ballast, you're just, you're going to bounce all over the place. And yeah, it definitely happens. And the thing is, even when we are, like Elijah, anchored in the Lord, I mean, you're at least turning to the Lord at each step, in the highs and in the lows, we are still flesh, Our bodies are going to have adrenaline rushes and they're going to have crashes. We're going to get tired and we're going to have energy at some times.
God's Gentle Response
Ryan: And that's, I think, where the story turns next is God recognizes that. It is not a point of shame that we are made of dust and flesh. And God made us this way and he knows us, and so he shows up with a care that fits
Bryan: yeah. Yeah, and that care I think is a really powerful next part of the story in verses five through eight. And this is, where we see obviously, Elijah is asking for everything to be over. It is enough now. And instead of, like you said, instead of giving him his request, God does answer prayers, but not always in the way we want.
And he answers this prayer with food and water and the invitation to take a nap. And I love every little part of this. You
Ryan: it.
Bryan: I think there, here's, can I provide a hot take or a little bit of an annoyance that I have? Okay,
Ryan: love it. I love a Bryan Hot take.
Bryan: So, it's not overly hot, it's just mildly hot, but
thank you very much.
I'd rather it be hot or cold. Anyway, so one of my least favorite things here is this tendency we all have to totally split the physical and spiritual. Like we do this all the time and the language gets used all the time. It's like, well, that is physical and that is spiritual and never the twain shall meet.
And it reminds me in the book of Proverbs as, what is it? The words of Agur or Lemuel at the end of Proverbs where he's talking about, you know, give me neither too much or too little, help me to be satisfied with what you've given me. if he goes one direction, the pendulum swings too far the other direction, he's like gonna be tempted to steal from other people or in the other direction, he's gonna be tempted to just trust in his own pride.
And it's like that, there is a connection there with our physical wellbeing or physical provisions to our spiritual thinking and to what's going on on the inside. And like, these are absolutely on like clear display here for Elijah. His mental condition, his spiritual condition is just gassed. He is toast.
And so what does God do? Something physical. Like that is not the expected response, I think from what you would think God would do.
Physical and Spiritual Wellbeing
Bryan: And so the angel says, "Arise and eat, for the journey is too great for you." And so, as you think about what the angel is saying to Elijah here, to arise and eat, and then, he goes on and takes a nap and these things, but like, what are you seeing here between the connection, between physical and spiritual?
And how is God dealing with both of these things when we're going through times of burnout?
Ryan: Yeah, he's coming in the role of a caretaker here. And it is so interesting that so many of the times that we are tempted, when we're at our worst, when we're getting irritable, whatever it is, Adrian and I have just started telling each other, "You know what? You need to eat something." "I think you need to go take a nap."
Yeah, yeah, you're getting hangry. There's a phrase, I don't know who came up with this, but we've been talking about it for years. HALT is the acronym. Hungry, angry, lonely, tired. Like, take care of those things because if not, then temptation is waiting. And you mentioned this phrase, "The journey is too great for you."
Even that part is, I think, not condemnation, but compassion. It's naming his limits. The Hebrew hints at this idea of, "It is beyond your strength." You are not God. You have limits. You have places that you need to name. I can't do that. And Adrian and I both have real difficulty with this. I don't know if you have ever found it tough to say, "I don't think I can do that." Has that ever been a challenge? That feels like a Bryan challenge.
Bryan: Why is that so hard to say, "I don't think I can do that." I heard somebody, second hot take, okay? I heard somebody recently say, I need to have a Snickers bar myself, I think. I heard somebody once say, "The easiest word to say is no." And I was just like, "Uh-uh,
Ryan: Oh, not,
Bryan: not for me." The easiest word for me to say is not no.
And I think so often my expectations, the things that I'm thinking about, like I need to show up here, I need to do my best here, I need to give 110% as if that's even possible here. And it's like, the hardest thing for me to say is no, And knowing your limits, that is not an easy thing to do.
Ryan: Foreshadowing a conversation we're going to have at the end of this season about boundaries and limits and
Bryan: Oh yes.
Ryan: the nature of kind of staying healthy and saying no sometimes. And, yeah, I think it is really easy to underplay the value of sleep. We can all sort of get almost like this sense of pride in our culture
Bryan: podcast? Can we talk a lot about sleep? I
Ryan: "Oh, I love it.
I love it. Yeah. We need an episode all about sleep. The Lord gives his beloved sleep." But, yeah, "Oh, how are you doing? I'm busy. I didn't even get three hours of sleep last night. Let me tell everybody about how busy I am." I hear those kinds of conversations. I do that. I have tried to stop doing that and not make that a part of a talking point.
But nourishment, yeah, nourishment and sleep are a part of how we are able to be healthy enough to minister to an unhealthy world. How else are we going to be able to take on Jezebel and Ahab if we're just walking around hangry and sleep deprived?
Bryan: the idea here that he sleeps and he's using this opportunity for rejuvenation. I don't, I don't know. It's like he didn't just sleep. In verse five, he laid down, he was sleeping under the broom tree. Then the angel comes and says, "Get up and eat." And so it says there in verse six, "He looked and behold, there was at his head a cake baked on hot stones and a jar of water." It wasn't even like, you go make yourself some food. It was like, boom, there they are ready to go. And then
Ryan: Let them eat cake.
Bryan: ate and drank and lay down again." It's like, thank you. I love this so much.
And again, in verse seven, he repeats this one more time. I just, I appreciate the focus here, not only on the eating, but the sleeping. And I do love myself a good nap. And why isn't that more talked about in our culture? Because I don't think we focus enough on that aspect of our physical wellbeing. 'Cause like you said, yeah, I've got the badge.
Oh boy, I only slept four hours tonight. I must be knocking it out of the park.
Ryan: Yeah.
The Importance of Rest
Ryan: And he's not getting things done right now. There's the eating, there's the sleeping, and there's the stopping. It's the Sabbath idea of there is a time to not get things done so that whenever God has something that he needs you to do, you're going to get it done. It's back to our time episode. And what is it time for now?
There's a season to sleep. There's a season to rest and take a break. And Jesus took naps in the boat I think it's time to reclaim and normalize the need for taking breaks, having a snack, a nice honey cake, and a nice nap.
Bryan: I like that too, this was not a, this was not a rebuke. I need to find a better way of saying that. But this was not like, this was not God like wagging his finger at Elijah. it wasn't anything about that. I think it was all purely care. This was just like, this is what you need right now. And
Ryan: it's not even framed as weakness, right, to go with the idea that it's not a rebuke. It's not, it's not you are so off base. It's I know exactly what you need. And it's this timeless wisdom that only our creator has, and he's giving us that guidance by recording this to say, you know what, you might feel like it's your end.
You've got nothing else to give. What's the point? But the starting point before we deal with those spiritual and emotional questions is let's get your body
Bryan: yeah, yeah. Get your body right is an interesting, again, a couple of episodes ago, we were talking about how we don't hear lessons about being happy very often. And I don't think we've, like when do we hear that many lessons and discussions about like, get your body right. And that's actually on a slightly connected note when I was talking on our last conversation actually about how presence is important.
And you know, presence has showed up a lot actually in the last two episodes, but how presence is important you know, in the way that I deal with my relationship with the future and time in general, back in our time episode. Thinking about that was actually one area that I left out of the conversation was exercise.
I know I talked about like taking a walk and things, but like physical exercise well, bodily exercise profits little, as if to say like, it's unimportant completely. Again, out of context, not even what he's talking about there,
Ryan: He actually says it does profit you. That's what he says
Bryan: but that idea that like, if your body is just completely fighting across purposes with your mind, you gotta make some changes and get it on board with what your mind wants to do.
And I feel like I have spent far too many days and hours of my life fighting my body in a way that I just is not helpful. And so, yeah, like sleep and exercise and just that Sabbath idea of rest is so, so important. And it's like, isn't it cool how it's just like, already woven into what God has designed for us.
And it's not hard to find these moments where we need to just step away and collect ourselves and get ourselves on the right
Ryan: Yeah, and, you know, like talking about some of those moments that I was struggling with that I mentioned at the beginning, what comes after one of those in the design of our lives, my life, is a break. And it's amazing what those breaks do for me. And so, you know, after one of those big events where we were wrestling with, I think this was helpful and we made a difference, but it didn't go how we wanted, and we feel weird about some things.
It happens on Sunday. We always take every Monday off. Our calendar has one word on it on Monday, and it's the word, that's the easiest word to say, Bryan, "No." That's what it says every day of our--every Monday, it says "No," because that's our answer to everything. We are not doing anything. We're not committing to anything so that we can rest, so that we can slow down and eat and sleep in.
And then what we ended up doing this particular day, a month or so ago, is we spent the entire Monday talking with each other, debriefing everything, me and Adrian, and, you know, fed the kids, and then let them play, you know, and we just are sitting there all day processing. And it was so helpful to have this-- it's like all of life presses pause on Monday for us.
And so we had the space that we-- we've started to take it for granted, this space that we have, been blessed by to be able to catch up with ourselves, catch up with our life and say, "Okay, what is going on with our bodies, with our minds, with our emotions? How should we feel about this?
Let's call on God for wisdom and pray a little bit." And, that's kind of what is happening here with Elijah is there's this just pause. You're done with that. You're not--you know, you're done with the mountain showdown. You're not yet going to be mentoring Elisha. That's coming next. Right now, you just eat and sleep and be with God, and whenever it's time, after 40 days and 40 nights, I'm going to send you back out.
Bryan: Okay, so it's gonna be really helpful here for us to take a pause in this conversation. And you were just talking about pauses, so let's take another pause. Before we move on to the way that God deals with this situation at the end, I wanna take a super quick
Armchair Quarterback: Hustle Culture
Bryan: armchair quarterback moment and stop for a little bit of reflection on a couple of quotes I found.
I just wanted another excuse to use that soundbite. But,
Ryan: So
Bryan: okay, so in a lot of this conversation, what's gonna come out is, this idea that we're not being productive right now. And a lot of what we're saying here about stopping and about taking a break really flies in the face of some of what I'm calling hustle culture that exists out there right now.
And so I found a quote, one of two that we'll go through. This quote says, "The answer isn't necessarily less work. It can be finding the energy to wake up a little earlier and meditate or blocking off time for lunch during the day to unwind."
The second quote that I found, really this one's gonna be, this is my favorite one, I think, of the two.
So this one's a little bit more aggressive. I think the first one was a bit more like, yeah, you could see value in that. This one says, " Don't stop when you're tired. Stop when you're done." That's a quote from David Goggins in this idea of hustle culture.
"Don't stop when you're tired, Ryan. Stop when you're done." What do you think about that? You think that's a solid advice for our life?
Ryan: there is a time when you need to push through, absolutely. we learn to
almost shut off our tired and push through at times. You and I definitely are very guilty of that. But we all could use the wisdom to notice when you're tired and stop and let an angel and his wisdom teach you to take a break there. I would be much more proud of myself. I would feel better about myself if I lived those quotes exclusively and never stopped when I was tired or slept through that possible prayer alarm and tried to meet my day at my normal starting time. Like, that sounds virtuous. That sounds righteous. It's not just hustle culture.
That sounds like spiritual disciplines, church culture, Like, what we could think is the righteous way. Paul wasn't taking it easy ever. Jesus had so much to do, and he was pushing it. But actually, what they both teach us is to respect our weakness.
The Challenge of Absolute Statements
Ryan: Even Jesus honored and/or at least dealt with, accepted, embraced the fact that he came to live as a human, and he needed certain things.
Yeah, I'm interested in your take. You found these. What are you thinking about
Bryan: I feel like these, along with so many statements of concrete, absolute truth, are a challenge because they, for me, they offer more of a cause for shame than they do an encouragement to do better. Because of course, when I am tired and I am just gassed, which I do feel, even today, I feel times when it's like, it's time to stop.
There are moments where I feel like that. And it's just like, if I were to only think about these kinds of ideas, don't stop when you're tired, stop when you're done, I am going to literally just feel terrible about myself. And that's not gonna be motivating to do any positive, good work as a result of it.
I feel like it is a challenge when somebody has a very strong, absolute statement. You have to go back to Ecclesiastes 3, you have to go back to a place where you really have a choice to make. What is it time for today? And sometimes the answer is not a hard, absolute statement thou shalt always hustle.
a statement to say, my body right now is telling me take a break. And so to listen to that is, I think, a more wise and discerning way of handling these things. For me, it really isn't great advice. And I think it's a little bit more toxic than it could wind up being
Ryan: Especially in the culture, the--I don't know--the values that you and I both came up with, that work ethic is so much of how I sort of define myself, enter the world, this is what a man is, this is what a Christian is. And so it has definitely been a journey already, and this is a reminder. I love the way you brought in the prayer quote, because that is-- that's a different twist on pushing yourself, right?
It's like the John Wesley, you know, "I have so much to do today. I need to spend two hours praying." And it's like, wow, starting every day with that kind of a commitment, that's a lot. And I want to be praying to God as much as I can, but talk about, shame that you were talking about. Like, if that is the standard that I expect my schedule to fit, and I'm going to have to keep squeezing more out of myself and out of my schedule and away from my family and away from my sleep and away from everything else in order to meet these standards, it starts to be realistic.
And that's where I appreciate what you said about when you say things like this, as hard rulings, this is an axiom, this is an absolute truth, this is wisdom. You are losing all of the nuance of context, all of the wisdom of discerning the situation and what are the needs right now.
And it's one of the reasons advice is so difficult to give sometimes, because it's easy to throw it at people without really knowing what their situation is. So you want to start asking questions first and then say, "Okay, let me qualify this, but here's what I think might help you as some
Bryan: Tuning in and listening to their situation. I mean, obviously God has the advantage here of having a real solid idea of what Elijah actually needs, but I appreciate that point as well. It is hard to know how to counsel somebody in a moment where they may need to take a break, or actually what they may need is to put their foot on the gas.
The Gentle Whisper of God
Bryan: And so that could potentially lead us to the last part here of this conversation, 'cause it might be tempting to stop here in this whole idea and say, well, Elijah, for the rest of his life, kicked up his feet and enjoyed cakes of bread and all of these sorts of things, and he was the best napper around, but that's not where the story ends, of course.
Elijah is taken to Horeb, the mountain of God, and this amazing display of God's power, as if Elijah hadn't seen enough. Elijah gets to see an amazing power of God displayed before him. And this whole climactic end of the story is maybe a controversial place that we go sometimes, where Elijah hears a gentle whisper, and God is able to direct him on the next steps here of his life.
So what are you thinking about this story when God comes to him and whispers to him his next step? Why that? Why is that important in this story? And what does that really say about God in this moment of Elijah's weakness?
Ryan: know, I don't really know completely, but I'll tell you a few thoughts, and then I'm interested in what you take from it about God and about how we should apply the gentle whisper, the still small voices, I think the old King James maybe says it. The idea of Mount Horeb being the place of all of the things that came down in Exodus 19 before the Ten Commandments are given, and there's thunder and fire and earthquakes, and here there's some of that that starts to show up, but God isn't in it.
And whenever he shows up in the gentle whisper, or it can even be translated the sound of sheer silence, whenever that's what God's presence is found in, there's definitely something in contrast not only to Moses' experience and to this bigness of what we think of as acts of God, but also in contrast to the experience he had with the prophets of Baal and all of the highs we were talking about earlier.
This is not so much a low, but it is a lull. It is a quietness where he's finding God, and that's definitely--you and I have found in our lives that this is a space we need to carve out for stillness and silence to try to reconnect with the Lord. But what do you think we're supposed to take from this about God or about our lives?
I'm a little--I feel like I haven't landed yet on what this means.
Bryan: Well, I'm not gonna come out here with any, again, hot
Ryan: hard truth. Come
Bryan: but for me, I'm seeing in this story that big contrast. It is, compared to Carmel and everything that had just happened, and like you're saying, compared to a lot of these other moments with Moses and the voice of God being this booming experience or the idea that God is displaying himself, his presence in such fantastic and amazing things, but then contrasted with where is the message actually for Elijah?
It's in this quietness. And I think that's, for me, I think that is the definition of the way you talk, not what you say.
I think if Elijah would have been approached by God in a more forceful way, I don't know that that would have been necessarily landing with what Elijah needed to hear in the way that he needed to hear it. So yeah, maybe just like lining up the delivery with the actual message itself.
Ryan: Yeah, yeah. He needed encouragement, right? He needed strength. He needed to be built up. He didn't need a charge at that moment from God. He didn't need--certainly didn't need rebuke from God. Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. And, I think that there are times-- whenever I was having--I was struggling here like a month ago with some of this, one of my dear brothers kept meeting me with his own feelings of happiness and like booming, like,
Bryan: How did
Ryan: "No, you got to--yeah, it didn't work well.
It didn't resonate. It was just like, you got to celebrate the wins. There's so much that's great that's going on." And, I didn't want to discourage him. I wanted to--and he was right, it's true. And I was like, "Yeah, there is a lot, and I see that, and it's really good." But it just wasn't helpful to me because I had--I was not at that spot, and just telling me didn't take me there with the place that he was at.
And what was more helpful were those, that have come alongside and said, "Yeah, I've been there. That is rough." And like being with me as I find my way into a different place. And that's--I don't know, that kind of makes me think of this tone of voice idea,
Bryan: Yeah, I think what you just said is exactly what I struggle with so often is like, how can I be frustrated or how can it not land with me when somebody is like overflowing with joy at me? it's sort of, again, kind of connects back to our first episode this season about joy and happiness and how sadness fits into that.
It's like, there are moments where somebody's overly happy approach is just not gonna be the key that unlocks everything. It may actually do more harm than good. And for Elijah, I think he needed to hear from God in the way that he heard from God. And we need to be sensitive to that, I think too, when we approach others.
And maybe going through this themselves, it's a delicate balance on how to handle that and to, God is not like dismissing what he's feeling. He's not telling him, well, you're, less of a servant of mine because you're struggling with this right now. He nurtures him and he takes care of him.
God knows what we need. And he's not just gonna like stuff it down our throats, he's gonna provide us what we need in the way that we actually need it. And so this way that he comes to Elijah, I think is really helpful for
Ryan: And I love that he--I was just looking at this--he asks him twice, right? "What are you doing here?" And it's like just--it makes it clear that this is a process. It didn't just--him coming in that whisper, it didn't fix him, He is still needing that time, just like, I guess, the example I just gave of myself.
Part of being human is not just that you need sleep and food sometimes, you need breaks sometimes, it's also sometimes that you need to go on this journey and take the time that it takes to go from being down to being encouraged or, whatever it is that you need. Sometimes it's a process and respecting that God sees the process, God is with him in the process, he wasn't wrong for needing to take time.
And maybe that's some more grace that we can allow for ourselves from the Lord.
Bryan: The process, I think is really helpful. And if we're learning anything from Elijah's example is that it is a process. We've kind of examined here the anatomy of burnout and so much of Elijah's story really does connect with me on a deep way. And I may not have ever called out like Elijah did to for God to take my life, but I have felt like Elijah felt that I, even I only am left, I've felt moments where I thought I was alone. And that's a key indicator for me. Like we've talked about tuning into our bodies. Tuning into what I say sometimes can really help me then to understand, okay, this is time for something different now. I'm in a different place. I need different things. And this will be a different process to bring me out of.
Ryan: Wow, this really does give you book, chapter, and verse for what you said at the beginning of our season when you said, "I gotta get my Birkenstocks out because I'm tuning into my body." Like, here it is, God is saying, "Elijah, notice what is going on with your physical condition here." And so, yeah, we keep seeing all these connections, but I think that's really helpful.
I think we all can take a nap after this episode is over.
Bryan: I'm ready, my body
is Frank? Yeah, no,
Finding Jesus in Elijah's Story
Bryan: Okay, so let's find Jesus here in this story.
I know we've been talking about Elijah for quite a while, and this has been a really helpful conversation about burnout from Elijah's perspective. But is Jesus here in this story? And this isn't just a throwaway segment. I think Jesus has a lot to say and a lot that we can learn about rest. And what do you think here when you're seeing this story of Elijah and burnout, how does this connect with anything that Jesus has said or something that we see in this story about where Jesus?
It
Ryan: It's hard not to go to Jesus' invitation in Matthew 11, 28 to 30, about him. He doesn't say, "All you who are weary and heavy laden, what is the matter with you?"
He does not, like, going back, "Suck it up, come on, set your alarm three hours earlier and you can keep going when you're tired." So, you know, he says to the weary and the heavy laden, "I'm going to give you some rest."
And it's not physical rest as is happening here, though the Lord teaches us to find that, but it's like soul rest is important too. God wants us to find rest, not just in that rest to come, but even now to rest in him and to know that under his ordered rule, under his care, we are looked out for. We have someone who is with us and who wants us to be blessed.
What do you think of? Where do you see Jesus in this
Bryan: Yeah, I think Matthew 11 is the quintessential verse here. It really does like highlight the difference between the way that the Pharisees would have yoked their hearers, They seemed very, like they would have been very on board with those hustle culture quotes that we read before.
Like you push it all the way. And you know, it was just like, okay. But we see here Jesus extending a different kind of yoke, a different kind of teaching. And it's a teaching of grace. It's a teaching of understanding our limits and knowing who we are and knowing that what he's called us to do is not too much for us.
But that at the end of it, it's a work and a pushing that's leading us to rest, not just a work that's, for our own self-glory and a badge of honor right now. It's not, for us to be able to hold up this idealized view of some kind of Christian way of living. It's a way of pointing people to the rest they can experience with Jesus.
you know, we don't often think about God in that way, as we have in this story of Elijah, that he's nurturing and caring. And again, it goes back to our Ezekiel conversation too, about how God is nurturing, he is caring. He has very strong stand against unholiness and unrighteousness, of course.
And his glory is to be, upheld above all things, but he is nurturing and he does care. And he does want us to be enlivened in our way and not to be a valley of dry, dead, desiccated bones that are just like spent, right? He wants us to be, he wants us to be alive. And that's what Jesus extends. And I think this is one of the reasons why Jesus' call here resonated with so many people, because I'm sure so many people were just tired of being bullied around by the Pharisees and by the religious leaders of the day.
And even just, the inadequacy to be able to follow the old law completely. When they heard Jesus saying this, I think they were hopeful for something more grace-filled than what they had experienced previously.
Ryan: yeah, that's really cool. And Jesus is going to feed people physical food. He's going to feed people spiritual food. He's going to provide that nourishment, that care in so many ways, compassion for those who are really in need in their bodies for healing and in their spirits for strength. I think it's cool that Elijah and Moses, who also met God on a mountain, will later meet up with Jesus on a mountain again and see God, just sit there talking to him as he's glorified, and he'll have a fuller understanding of who the Lord is as he hangs out with Jesus, as he's transfigured in Matthew 17.
Bryan: I did not even pull that out, but that is a deep cut I'm gonna think about for a while.
Challenge for the Week: Embrace Rest
Bryan: So let's move on here for our challenge for the week.
And if you're wondering what a challenge for this week might be, yeah, you guessed it. This week, we're gonna practice receiving God's care and we're gonna identify one thing that we can do to address physical or emotional exhaustion. Maybe you need to take a nap, take one. Maybe you need to go take a walk, go take one.
Have a meal, go eat it. while you do it, think about Jesus' words here. Come to me and I will give you rest. This is not about being lazy. This is about accepting that God has grace enough for you and your limit.
Ryan: Love that. I'm looking out my window right now at a hammock and thinking, "Yeah, I think that is the kind of theology I need to practice, some hammock theology,"
Bryan: I do, I love it. And maybe, maybe as you're practicing this, you can think about those things that you read from our previous challenge. Ryan, I know you got done with all of this Ezekiel talk. last week, we were talking about this workshop idea of like immersing ourselves in a chapter and Ezekiel 37 was on the list.
What did you get from that as you read through it?
Ryan: Oh, yeah, reading through it again, it just-- I had forgotten how much was packed into that chapter. It's like a summary that pulls together a lot of other themes in Ezekiel, but I'm actually more interested in what you took from reading that chapter since I talked a lot about Ezekiel last time.
Bryan: Yeah, I think it is hitting me even more. think I was already talking about it just a second ago about the Valley of Dry Bones, right? It's that on the heels of this conversation. There's something very powerful about that idea God is the God who created the Garden of Eden. God is the God who brings life and who wants us to be full of life.
And for us to be spiritually dead, is not what God ever wanted and not what he wants for us today.
Ryan: Yeah, that's the power of that vision.
Bryan: Yeah,
Ryan: Sometimes we feel like dry bones, but it's a vision of restoration, of God bringing health and life to us, and of course, someday we will be truly and fully resurrected, but really that vision is about the life that he brings to us now in Christ.
Bryan: all right. So this episode we've been talking about being spiritually and emotionally exhausted and how God is going to help us in that with his gentle and practical care. I'm getting from this conversation really the importance of sleeping.
And I used to be, I am a recovering badge of honor wearer of those people who used to say, I only slept five hours today. And you can throw that whole idea in the trash. I love my sleep. Get as much sleep as possible.
Ryan: Yeah.
Bryan: Does not want us to be lazy, of course.
Yet if we do not sleep, how can we be expected to enjoy the rest that's coming at the end of all this? I love rest. Bring it on.
Ryan: Yeah, I think my takeaway from all of this conversation has to do with just what you said, connecting to the shame idea, that there is no shame in being human. Like, not human like, "Oh, we're all human. Everybody makes mistakes." That's true, but like human like, "God made us to have bodies. God made us to need food.
God made us to need sleep. He could have designed us to be 24-hour machines, but he didn't. And so I need to not feel bad that that's how he made me, but rather respect and appreciate that he chose this. I need to follow the standard operating instructions for what my body needs in order to be able to serve him at my best.
Bryan: not sound very human to me, but I think I got where you're headed with that. I'm glad you,
Ryan: Sorry, the robot came in. Yeah.
Bryan: glad you wrapped it up with a more human way of saying that. So this has been a conversation all about burnout and learning about God's grace through that time. episode,
Ryan: Let me interrupt you here. Be
Geektober Preview: AI and Robots
Ryan: fore we get to our next episode, since Geektober is next, right? We're
Bryan: is next. Yes, we have not actually talked about this yet, but
Ryan: Okay, so we're about to go into Geektober, and I have a question for you. It is a dad joke. Here we go. Here we go. What is the easiest city in the Bible to spell? The answer is AI. And we're going to be talking about, remember Joshua conquered AI. We're going to be talking about AI next. We're going to be getting into the robot. So I'll let you take it away from there. But I wanted to get in a really, really bad dad joke for you here and That was really bad.
Bryan: okay. Okay. Now I have to kick this thing off
Ryan: Feel free to cut that this is gonna be great. No. So Geektober begins on our next episode and we haven't talked much about it, but if what Ryan just said is any indication, it's gonna get nerdy.
going to get real nerdy.
Bryan: So just until you thought we couldn't get any nerdier, we're gonna spend an entire month doing some really weird episodes of some very cool topics that we're excited about.
And the first one is about being a robot and how to use robots in your service, especially as we've been talking about AI with Ryan's terrible joke. We're gonna talk about AI on the next episode and how to potentially use it in our service. What are the dangers of it and why we should be more discerning with it than maybe we currently are.
And so we're excited about that conversation. Maybe some more dad jokes on the horizon, who knows? Thanks so much everyone for tuning in. This has been the Bible Geeks podcast. You can find us on our website, biblegeeks.fm. You can find show notes for this episode in your podcast player or at biblegeeks.fm.
You can also sign up for our newsletter there if you wanna get our blog articles sent to you every week. If you have a question that you'd like to send us, you can also record it and send it to us that we could include on the show. That would be really cool.
And we're really excited for Geektober. So tune in for that. Until the next episode, everyone, may the Lord bless you and keep you.