Burn Out or Rust Out?

Every once in a while I hear someone say, “Id rather ‘burn out’ than ‘rust out’.” As if to say one extreme is a waste and the other is not. Our Lord had plenty of opportunities to burnout had this been the motto and model by which He wanted us to live. Take for example His ministry in Galilee:

When the sun was setting, the people brought to Jesus all who had various kinds of sickness, and laying his hands on each one, he healed them. 41 Moreover, demons came out of many people, shouting, "You are the Son of God!" But he rebuked them and would not allow them to speak, because they knew he was the Christ. 42 At daybreak Jesus went out to a solitary place. The people were looking for him and when they came to where he was, they tried to keep him from leaving them. 43 But he said, "I must preach the good news of the kingdom of God to the other towns also, because that is why I was sent." 44 And he kept on preaching in the synagogues of Judea. (NIV Luke 4:40-44)

“The moment is NOW!” people lined up and adrenaline is flowing. The stage was His. It was an excellent opportunity to burnout for God in one place and time had He not craved solitude with His Father more than moments of ministry. “But Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed” (Luke 5:16). It was that intimacy that gave the break He needed, the direction required, and the courage to start out in another town with a bigger goal than the physical demands of men and women. Is your life and ministry an unstoppable addiction to adrenaline governed by people pleasing motives? Or is intimacy with Your Heavenly Father the passion that will keep you on the balance beam between the extremes of rust out and burnout?

Jim Anderson - January - 2008