Skip The Dinner is CareImpact’s year-end Christmas campaign, a fundraising non-event. You keep your time, and you give from wherever you are.
Right now, every year-end gift or pledge is DOUBLED by a generous donor, so your giving goes twice as far to help strengthen CareImpact’s work with churches and community partners across Canada.
Today's question: “I used to be someone people could count on, but lately, I just don't have it in me. Am I failing if I pull back?”
Your messy adviser, Johan, tackles this real (and slightly crispy) dilemma in a way only he can— with snack references, biblical throwbacks, and gentle reminders that hitting the wall doesn’t mean you’re not caring enough. Get ready for a short but meaningful conversation about what burnout really looks like, why boundaries matter, and how stepping back might actually honour your heart to serve. Perfect for those late-night Google searches about burnout—or anyone who secretly wishes for a nap and a rotisserie chicken.
DONATE! Help connect and equip more churches across Canada to effectively journey well in community with the most vulnerable: careimpact.ca/donate
Mentioned in this episode:
Skip The Dinner-Double Your Impact
Skip The Dinner is CareImpact’s year-end Christmas campaign, a fundraising non-event. You keep your time, and you give from wherever you are.
Right now, every year-end gift or pledge is DOUBLED by a generous donor, so your giving goes twice as far to help strengthen CareImpact’s work with churches and community partners across Canada.
Each donation will be matched before January 1, 2026.
Transcripts
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This one's for anyone who's ever told someone, I'm good, while quietly
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googling burnout symptoms at 2AM. Burnout doesn't always
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look like a breakdown, sometimes it looks like crying in a Costco
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parking lot because they're at a rotisserie chicken and that was your
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one win for the day. You sign the volunteer form. By week three,
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you're running the entire Sunday team you weren't even part of and hiding
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behind a potted plant to avoid being asked again. Welcome to Messy Advice
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for People Who Care, a summer series from Journey with Care for people
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who care deeply, try their best, and sometimes wonder if
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burnout is just their personality now. We're talking about
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caregiving, boundaries, burnout, and the not so clear moments of loving
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others well, minus the formulas. This is Johan on
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the edge of helpful, slightly crispy around the edges, but
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still showing up. Sometimes the
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hardest thing to admit is that we've hit a wall, especially when
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people count on us to keep showing up. Today's question gets
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into that exact tension. I used to be someone
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people can count on, but lately, I just don't
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have it in me. Am I failing if I pull back?
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That's not just a fair question. It's one I think more people are
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quietly carrying than we realize. It hits on that deep
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unspoken fear. What if I'm not okay and people still need me to
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be? According to a 2022 Indeed Canada
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report, 53 of Canadian workers said they were burned
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out, up from forty percent just two years earlier.
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So if you're feeling emotionally spent, you're not dramatic.
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You're trending, which is probably the least comforting way of saying
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you're not alone. But stats don't tell you what it feels like at
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30AM, checking your messages with a pit in your stomach
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and nothing left in the tank. Let's talk about that.
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Now I love the heart behind showing up, but
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somewhere along the line, we turned it into a competitive sport, and the
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gold medal goes whoever cancels rest the fastest in the name of being
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available. Imagine this. You're two hours into your
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workday, three tabs deep into unread emails, and someone texts,
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hey. Can you help me out with something small? You're exhausted.
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But you type, sure. I'm happy to help because the
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guilt hits faster than the boundary. And suddenly, you're in full
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triage mode, overfunctioning like your spiritual worth depends on
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it. Not because you want to, but because saying no
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feels like a betrayal. Consider this. Let's
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get biblical. Biblical. In first
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Kings 19, Elijah has just come off a massive spiritual
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wind. Fire from heaven, the prophets of Baal
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exposed, people falling on their knees in worship.
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By all accounts, it's a career defining moment for a prophet.
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And then he crashes, and he crashes
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hard. He runs into the wilderness, lies down under a
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bush, and basically tells God, I've had enough.
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I'm done. He's not dramatic. He's depleted.
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And what does God do? Not a lecture. Not a
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motivational speech. No. Let's talk about your lack
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in faith. Instead, God sends an angel,
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and God sends an angel of snacks. And he says,
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get up and eat. And then Elijah falls asleep again,
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so the angel comes back with more food. It's like divine
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DoorDash with a side of try again later. God
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doesn't rush Elijah. He doesn't push him past his limits.
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He gives him space, silence, rest,
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and then, only then, he whispers. Not in fire,
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not in wind, not in earthquakes, but in
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stillness. This isn't just about burnout. It's about how
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god responds to our breaking point with care,
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with gentleness, with a kind of kindness that doesn't require
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us to prove we're still useful. Sometimes the most
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spiritual thing you can do is take a nap and eat something
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warm. So maybe the most faithful thing you could do this
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week is nap. Not out of laziness, but a way
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of saying, I trust that everything doesn't depend on me.
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Burnout doesn't mean that you've failed. It means that you've been carrying more than you
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were meant to. Maybe it's time to set something down, not
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everything, just something. Start there. And, hey,
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if that landed somewhere in your chest, you're not alone. A lot of us are
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trying to serve from empty wells and we don't have to.
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And if you wanna join a conversation with like minded people, join us on the
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Care Impact podcast group on Facebook. And until next time,
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keep loving, keep laughing, and if your search history includes
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burnout symptoms or how to fake a sabbatical, take
