Senior Living

I recently took a mission trip with 22 Lexington seniors to a new church “remake” in Jacksonville, FL.

They were an incredible group of hard-working saints of God.

They sang and ministered to 3 nursing homes, prayed with many individuals, cooked free meals for seniors in the community and completed numerous work projects around the church.

What was their secret for such energy?

I believe it was 2 things:

1. Their work ethic, burning their candles at both ends.

2. God was empowering them with His strength.

I think there has been a great misconception in our society that if you like to work really hard you are setting yourself up for something we call “burnout.”

This term was introduced in the 1970s by a German-born American psychologist, Herbert Freudenberger. He coined the term for a psychological condition that had more to do with depression than being over-worked. It has also been somewhat accepted as a psychological condition to diagnose the hard-working individual as a “workaholic.”

That term first appeared, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, in the Toronto Daily Star in 1947 as a pun alluding to Alcoholics Anonymous:

“If you are cursed with an unconquerable craving for work, call Workaholics Synonymous, and a reformed worker will aid you back to happy idleness.”

There you have it. Ever since Adam’s fall when God declared in Genesis 3:19 “By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground,” until the 20th century, hard work from sunup to sundown was just what we did.

Now in our lifetime hard workers are said to have a mental problem!

I Cor. 15:58: “Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, since you know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.”

Some of you will remember the old hymn:

Work, for the night is coming. Work thro’ the morning hours.

Work while the dew is sparkling. Work ‘mid springing flow’rs.

Work when the day grows brighter, Under the glowing sun.

Work, for the night is coming, When man’s work is done.