Pacing Yourself for a Long Fulfilled Life

In an interview, Shona Murray comments on the sense of being overwhelmed and burned-out from the tasks of her life. She said she received gifts of grace from God when she finally came to see him working through her struggle: “God taught me a big lesson: ‘No one is strong enough to avoid some of the most common ailments that afflict human beings. Everyone can suffer burnout, everyone can suffer depression.’ Post-depression, I’ve come to value the importance of caring for, not just giving out and caring, but receiving. I need to refuel so that I can effectively minister to others. And if we’re in it for the long haul, if you want to live a long-fulfilled, a Christ-serving life, you have to pace yourself. You cannot run a marathon running the first mile like the way you would run a hundred-meter dash, you just can’t do it” (Shona Murray, “I Never Understood Burnout or Depression—Until It Happened to Me,” June 11, 2019, https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/podcasts/tgc-podcast/never-understood-burnout-depression-happened/).