Should We Carry the Weight of the World On Our Shoulders?

Does God want us to be exhausted and burned out?

I think sometimes we can feel like we need to save the world, and we can end up exhausted and burned out as a result.

This is understandable. For every person we help, ten more need it. Every dent we make in a vital cause makes us aware of just how much more work needs to be done on that cause. Plus, there are 100 other noble causes, all jockeying for our time and attention. It turns out the world is a pretty broken place.

I think this is part of why so many of us who set out to do some good in the world end up burned out. I have friends who work 80 hour weeks and are haunted by how much more work it seems like there is to do. I have friends who run themselves ragged ministering to other people 24/7, because there’s always another person who needs their help.

I’ve seen this in my own life. As a writer, I don’t think my work is particularly life-and-death, but I can still get so caught up in using my words to try to help people that I end up white-knuckling my labor in order to try to turn giant projects around faster.

I don’t think God is calling us into life like this.

I get why so many of us feel the weight of the world on our shoulders. In Christian circles, we talk about being “co-laborers” with God. But sometimes I think we have a distorted sense of what that term means.

Here’s how my wife describes it. Remember in The Two Towers movie, there’s a scene of Treebeard and the other ents storming Isengard, and Merry and Pippin are sitting on Treebeard’s shoulders and throwing rocks at the orcs?

Merry and Pippin are, in that moment, co-laborers with Treebeard. They’re contributing to the fight. They’re getting to flex their muscles and do their part to take down evil.

But at the same time, let’s not kid ourselves. If Merry and Pippin decided to sit on their hands instead of participating in the battle, Isengard would still have been sacked.

I think co-laboring with God is a little bit like being Merry and Pippin, riding on Treebeard’s shoulders.

When God invites us to co-labor with Him, in some ways it’s a gift to us. We were made to advance God’s kingdom; in Revolution Within, theologian Dwight Edwards says that “we were created and redeemed to mount up on God-given wings…and to abandon ourselves to the high adventure of warring on behalf of God’s kingdom in this dark world.” It feels good to have a purpose and to work towards that purpose. It lights up our souls. It feels especially good to be doing this work with God.

But if we chose not to co-labor with God…His vital work would still get done.

I’ll use myself as an example. I write in part so that I can help people out of their fear and guilt and shame. Lately, God’s laid on my heart an especial passion for political extremists, and for helping them to let go of their inner pain and to instead find meaning and purpose and joy in life. Writing articles designed to help political extremists is part of my work. It’s joyful and enlivening. It feels, to me, very much like “the high adventure of warring on behalf of God’s kingdom in this dark world.”

But if I opted to sit around my house playing video games all day and never wrote another word, God would not be stymied. He would not be sitting there flummoxed and saying to himself “Well Gosh darn it, I really wanted to save these political extremists. But Julian’s not cooperating. What am I going to do now?”

If God did that, He wouldn’t be master of the universe. He would be neither omniscient nor omnipotent. He would actually be pretty weak and sad.

The truth is that, if I don’t cooperate as a co-laborer in God’s grand design, that design will still be accomplished. I am simply not big enough for my refusal to stymie the God of the universe.

And this is an incredibly liberating idea, because it takes the weight of the world off of my shoulders and puts it back where it belongs, on God’s shoulders.

Now to be clear, I’m not denigrating the wonderful and important work that people do when they co-labor with God, whether they call themselves believers or not. I know therapists who have turned broken men’s lives around. I know pastors who have saved marriages. I’ve heard of people performing all kinds of miracles that transform the lives of the people in their orbit.

But I was at a conference of pastors last week***, and one of the speakers said that there are two ways that we can approach co-laboring with God.

The first way is to say, essentially, “God didn’t start working until I got here, and He’s going to stop the minute that I stop.” That mentality, the speaker stressed, is a short route to exhaustion and burn-out.

The second way to approach co-laboring with God is to say, essentially, “God’s grand design was already working before I came on the scene, and if I leave the scene it will keep working. I’m just humbled and honored to be included in that design.” That mentality, the speaker said, is a path to inner peace and rejuvenation. It’s how we avoid burnout and exhaustion.

It’s also more Scripturally accurate.

I forget who taught me this, but one thing I like to ask God when I’m feeling exhausted or stressed out is: “God, what am I carrying that you never asked me to carry?”

Jesus teaches that “my yoke is easy and my burden is light” (Matthew 11:30, NIV). If I ever start to feel like I’m sweating and straining under the weight of a heavy burden, then there’s a good chance that I’m carrying something that Jesus never asked me to carry.

Next time you find yourself exhausted or stressed out or struggling with burnout, take some time and ask God if you’re carrying anything that He never asked you to carry. And if the answer is “Yes,” consider either setting it down or giving it to Him.

***To clarify: no, I’m not a pastor myself.

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