Good morning…
After sharing a quote in yesterday’s post from Jan Johnson’s When The Soul Listens, I quietly rest in the rest of the nurturing chapter. I eat from the feast prepared on pages 170 and 171.
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The rhythm of action and contemplation makes compassion fatigue and burnout unnecessary. Your conversational life with God will keep you richly supplied with companionship and innovative ideas. As an author and longtime commentator on social justice issues, Jim Wallis understands well this rhythm:
“Action without reflection can easily become barren and even bitter. Without the space for self-examination and the capacity for rejuvenation, the danger of exhaustion and despair is too great… Contemplation confronts us with the questions of identity and power. Who are we? To whom do we belong? Is there a power that is greater than ours?… Our drivenness must give way to peacefulness and our anxiety to joy… Strategy grows into trust, success into obedience, planning into prayer.” (Jim Wallis’ The Soul of Politics: Beyond “Religious Right” and “Secular Left,” 22)
Wallis’ insight that “drivenness must give way to peacefulness” reassures us that the driven among us are not excluded from the contemplative way. It helps us seek God instead of our own goals.
Perhaps this idea of contemplation as burnout prevention explains why the Sisters of Mercy don’t get overwhelmed as they work among the poor and dying in Calcutta, India. Even though they get so much important work done, “they spend only five hours a day among the poor. The rest is spent in prayer, meditation, and things that focus them on God. Their effectiveness and ability to keep going is multiplied incredibly because of their time with God.” (Jan Johnson’s Living a Purpose-Full Life: What Happens When You Say Yes To God, 100)
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We ask: “How do I prevent burnout as I serve the LORD?” God answer: “Learn well My rhythm of action and contemplation. Drivenness to peacefulness. Anxiety to joy. Strategy into trust. Success into obedience. Planning into prayer.”
But the fruit of the Spirit [the result of His presence within us] is love [unselfish concern for others], joy, [inner] peace, patience [not the ability to wait, but how we act while waiting], kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such things there is no law (Galatians 5:22-23, AMP).
…Sue…
