After the Juniper Tree: Three Strategies for Coping with Excessive Stress
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The great prophet Elijah found himself under a juniper tree, practically passed out from emotional, physical, and some might even say spiritually exhaustion.
Utterly depleted.
Long-term chronic stress wore him down and then a few new stressors placed the last straw on the camel’s – or in this case, the prophet’s – back.
By the way, neither his spiritual status nor his miracle-working ability saved him from this very human reaction.
You may find yourself in a similar condition some time, maybe even right now!
When you are in that kind of state, things can feel pretty hopeless. (In fact, I shared more about that in an article entitled Under the Juniper Tree: Three Signs of Excessive Stress.)
Here is good news. The God of Israel ministered to Elijah in those circumstances.
We can learn at least three strategies for bouncing back from stress, overwhelm, and burnout when we read 1 Kings 19 and see how God dealt with Elijah.
#1. Manage Your Self-care
It’s interesting that the first way God ministers to Elijah is through his physical body.
Elijah is exhausted. God just lets him sleep.
Then an angel wakes him up with a substantial cooked meal and a bottle of water.
He sleeps some more, then the angel wakes him up again with another meal and a bottle of water. So God began to minister to him physically.
Our natural tendency under stress is to work harder and let go of our self-care strategies.
That might work with short-term stressors but it’s catastrophic under long-term stress. Counterintuitive perhaps but we need more self-care, not less self-care.
One thing that works for me – and what works will be different for everybody -but when I’m under a lot of stress, one thing I have done through the years is allowed myself to have an extra 30 or 60 minutes of sleep.
You need to find ways to still get rest, maintain your devotional life, exercise, and eat a healthy diet.
#2. Maintain Your Passion
The next strategy: maintain your passion. Stay in touch with your calling, your purpose, your mission, and the Big Why of what you are doing.
I find it super interesting that before God even addresses Elijah’s self-talk or his skewed thinking, He tells him to get back to work. (Remember, of course, this was after a period of deep rest.)
The Lord told him to “Go back the way you came” and gave him a list of tasks to accomplish.
As my friend Thomas McDaniels says, “God rebooted him into vision and purpose and unlocked his passion.”
I know that right now for many churches, attendance is low and budgets are tight. It is harder to fund certain activities.
Still, reconnect with your core mission of ministering to and discipling people! That has not changed.
Perhaps you could pick out a budding leader and spend time with them and focus on that. (One of the Lord’s tasks for Elijah was to anoint Elisha, his successor.)
Find something positive that gets you back to your mission and your vision even if it is on a reduced scale.
#3. Mind Your Headspace
Finally, after all this, God addresses Elijah’s thinking.
Elijah had complained he was the only faithful person left in the country but now the Lord says, “Actually Elijah, I still have 7000 who have not bowed the knee.”
Perhaps 7,000 is not that many but it is 7,000 more than Elijah thought, right?
His thinking was skewed. Out of touch with reality. In reality, Elijah was not the only faithful person in Israel.
When you are under long-term stress, if you get burned out or succumb to discouragement, your thinking likely will become off-base, inaccurate, and out of touch.
You need to examine it and remind yourself what is true.
Conclusion
Any one of us can find ourselves under the juniper tree.
It’s not evidence of weakness. It’s not even evidence of not serving God or trusting God.
It’s OK to take a break. Jesus took breaks. Think about that for a minute.
It is not spiritual to burn yourself out.
It’s OK to do what we need to do to take care of ourselves, whether that’s time off, whether it’s talking to somebody, whatever it is. We have to stay strong for the long run.
Elijah did not appear to be accomplishing that much most of the time. Yet he was following God’s call.
Today, we recognize him as one of the heroes of the Bible.
You shine as a hero of the faith, too, pastor.
Take care of yourself and run your race to completion. That is all that the One who called you is asking.
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