“Come to me all who are heavy laden, and I will give you rest for your souls.”

Jesus’ invitation in the Gospel of Matthew continues to be a relevant call for our current culture of stress and burnout. Studies show that both men and women work longer hours now than they did two decades ago. People are shown to be working more and resting less, which has caused an epidemic among most Western adults. This overworking culture is not just affecting non-Christians, but one of the top careers that end in burnout is clergy. How do we as Christians thrive in a culture of stress? Could it be that stress is the root of many of our relational, emotional, and health problems? Only Christian discipleship that recovers the practice of spiritual disciplines can help Christians thrive in a culture of stress.

Stress and Its effects

Many people are not able to recognize when their bodies are under stress. Most people don’t know how to listen to their body’s reactions when the body is overstressed. There is a common myth that all stress is negative. There are the obvious stressors of moving, death, divorce, and conflict. However, there is also good stress called ‘eustress’. This kind of stress is the type that allows our body to be fueled by adrenaline in exciting or adventurous tasks. To many, this feeling is a good feeling and will never feel like stress. However, eustress, if not kept in check, will lead our bodies and minds to be overstressed just like the negative sources of stress.

We all need some stress to live, or our lives would be boring, but our culture is currently seeing an epidemic of being over worked and over stressed. The result is a growing population who are emotionally, physically, spiritually, and mentally sick. We know that stress causes illness, kills the immune system, and Archibald says that psychosomatic disorders are the likely result of stress. What our bodies need after periods of adrenaline is a period of rest, where the adrenal system can recover. This means that our current culture is in a perfect storm, high stress, and little rest. Compare our culture to a century ago and you see we sleep on average 4 hours less than people did then a night!

Current Christian Burnout

As Christians, we naturally assimilate to this culture of burnout and stress. Research has shown that pastors work almost sixty hours a week neglecting their own personal health and wellbeing. Many of us are motivated by Christian guilt rather than love when it comes to serving. This means that we over-serve because we are trying to appease this guilty feeling we have. Christians also do not rest as we should. Most people do not practice the spiritual discipline of Sabbath or prayer or silence. The results are a Christian population who are as anxious and stressed as the rest of our culture.

Diane Chandler explains how the effects of burnout and stress are, emotional exhaustion and spiritual dryness. That means that our ignorance of how to manage our stress is affecting our ability to witness and minister how God would have us minister. An undisciplined life can result in burnout which is a serious thing. Burnout from stress can affect not just our bodies but our minds. A recent study showed that a third of Christian workers surveyed had all experience burnout. Is this the picture that Jesus had in mind when He called us to “find rest for our souls”?

Calm In the Midst of Chaos

The culture that we live in, while busier, is no more stressful than the world in that Jesus lived while He was on the earth. 1st century Rome was a stressful time to live. Sickness, war, persecution, famines, and the short life expectancy, all amounted to a stressful life. Yet, Jesus, amid this culture, and thinking about ours, calls us to come to Him and find rest for our souls. What is fascinating is that science is catching up to the bible and biblical truths. Christian spiritual disciplines are a scientifically proven method to effectively deal with stress.

If you say spiritual disciplines, most Christians will look at you like you are some fundamental legalistic Christian. However, these disciplines, rooted in Scripture are the means and remedy God has given His people to thrive amidst a fallen world riddled with stress. A small percentage of Christians practice Sabbath. How many of us practice the discipline of silence? This isn’t meant to condemn, but rather reveal to us that the very remedies that God has given us to deal with the stress we neglect. Like someone said the definition of crazy is doing the same thing over but expecting different results. Something must change.

Rhythms of Rest

I believe there are three spiritual practices that are essential in being a counter-cultural influence in regard to stress. I will include studies that show how these are essential in managing stress. These disciples include prayer, Bible meditation, and rest.

Prayer is one of the most confusing of the spiritual disciplines. If we are honest, prayer makes us nervous. We sit alone and are talking to a God we can not see. However, we often miss the point of prayer. Prayer is meant to be a place for our souls to open to our Father who hears us and is near to us. Authors Kyle Strobel and John Coe in their book, When Prayer Becomes Real, say that prayer is “not a place to be good but a place to be honest.” In prayer, we bring our fears, worries, desires, and anxious thoughts before the Lord. Archibald states that worry and fear are “threats that produce the greatest amount of stress damage.” Scripture tells us to not be anxious in anything but to submit all our requests before God in prayer (see Philippians 4:6-7). By actively bringing our fears and worries before God, we are reducing the amount of stress in our bodies.

Paul follows this exhortation to pray with a promise that God’s peace will guard our hearts and minds. Prayer is God’s means for every disciple to obtain His peace. God’s peace is always available to every Christian, often flowing through the avenue of prayer. Strobel and Coe again testify that “in pouring my heart out to the Lord, I came to experience the love of God in a way I have never known.” If much stress is caused by fear and worry in the mind, let us use the means of prayer and bring our fears and worries to the God who hears and is near.

Bible reading and meditation go closely along with prayer. Paul tells us in Romans 12:2 to “be transformed by the renewing of our minds.” I cannot stress how important this spiritual discipline is in managing stress and overcoming anxiety. The Christian practice of bible meditation is one of the, if not the, most important tools in thriving in a stress-filled culture. Archibald makes this bold statement, “evidence for its effectiveness is so strong that I would stick my neck out and say categorically that if you don’t include this strategy in your treatment plan, you will not make much headway.”

A current and proven effective method to deal with stress is a practice called CBT, or cognitive behavioral therapy. This practice is geared toward renewing our minds and changing negative ways of thinking. The core practice of CBT is simply the biblical truth of a renewed mind repackaged. Secular studies show that CBT is effective for treating anxiety sensitivity which is caused by stress. Scripture is clear that we have an enemy who is the accuser of God’s people, and he can fill our minds with anxious, fearful, and condemning thoughts. Therefore, the New Testament makes a strong command to take our thoughts captive and to put our minds on Christ. However, one study showed that only nine percent of Christians read their bible daily. This means that out of the six thousand thoughts we have per day, most Christians are not filled with the truths of Scripture. If we desire to thrive in a stress-filled culture, we must daily be renewing our minds through the reading of God’s word.

The third discipline is the spiritual discipline of rest. David Murray, in his book Reset, says, “show me your sleep pattern and I’ll show you your theology.” Our rest declares what we believe or do not believe about God. More importantly, our lack of rest and trust in our Maker is only perpetuating our overstressed and anxious lives. Again, Murray reminds us that, “just one week of sleeping fewer than six hours a night results in damaging changes to more than seven hundred genes, coronary narrowing, and signs of brain tissue loss.” To put it simply, sleep matters. When God created the world, He created a rhythm of work and rest. We were never created to be machines who only existed to produce. However, many of us have forgotten that rest is a godly spiritual discipline that God commands us to observe.

If a friend of yours walked up and told you that they were committing adultery, I imagine you would plead with them to stop, repent, and make things right. Yet, in our Christian culture, we celebrate pastors and leaders who are on call 24/7 and breaking God’s command to Sabbath. We are celebrating something that God has prohibited. However, when we rest our brains are nourished and restored. Murray again, “brains had been physically renewed overnight, making new neural connections so they could achieve more in less time.” Sleep and rest are God’s means to renew our bodies and lower our stress. Relaxation lowers blood pressure, decreases anxiety, and even allows dopamine to be sent to the rest of our brain.

These spiritual disciplines along with the other means God has given us are vital if we are going to be a counter-cultural influence in an overstressed culture. Christians must take back the practice of the slower more intentional lifestyle of Jesus if we are not going to be swept away by the fast-paced life that leads to over-stress and anxiety. Jesus calls us, by His grace to “learn from Him and to take His yoke upon us,” the very means that I have described above, and through the power of the Holy Spirit we will find not just rest for our souls, but for our bodies and minds as well.

BOOKS/ARTICLES

Chandler, Diane. The Impact of Pastors’ Spiritual Practices on Burnout. Journal of

Pastoral Care & Counseling, vol. 64, 2: pp. 1-9. , First Published June 1, 2010.

Hart, Archibald. Adrenaline and Stress. Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 1995

Hart, Archibald. The Anxiety Cure. Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 1999

Jones, Rachel. Could Your Pastor Be Close To Burnout? March 15th, 2016; https://www.thegoodbook.co.uk/blog/news/2016/03/15/could-your-pastor-be-close-to-burnout-our-survey-s/

Murray, David. Reset. Wheaton, Ill: Crossway Publishing, 2017

Sahranavard, Esmaeili, Dastjerdi, Salehiniya, “The effectiveness of stress-management- based cognitive-behavioral treatments on anxiety sensitivity, positive and negative affect and hope” https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6254097/#:~:text=Conclusion%3A%20According%20to%20the%20results,hopes%20for%20coping%20with%20challenges.

Strobel, Kyle and Coe, John. When Prayer Becomes Real. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2021