My Burnout Story #5: Stretched Thin in the Wilderness
True burnout isn't just about being tired. It is the profound exhaustion that happens when life asks for everything you have, while your support systems and opportunities for rest plummet to zero. When you are cornered, running on empty, and completely isolated, it is devastatingly easy to lose your footing.
EDUCATORS' BURN OUT
7/21/20262 min read
Even the strongest leaders in history weren't immune to this. In Numbers 20, we see a textbook case of grief-induced burnout in Moses.
The chapter opens with the death of his sister, Miriam. She wasn’t just family; she was his anchor, his co-leader, and the one who sang praises after the Red Sea. She was the only one who truly understood the crushing weight of his calling. Instantly, Moses was thrust into deep grief. But the wilderness didn't pause for his broken heart.
Immediately, the people gathered to complain bitterly about the lack of water. Moses was emotionally depleted, physically exhausted, and mentally fatigued by years of relentless criticism. He was operating on absolute zero. When God told him to simply speak to the rock for water, Moses’s frustration boiled over. Feeling cornered and deeply misunderstood, he raised his staff and angrily struck the rock twice.
He managed to produce water, but he lost his composure and his dignity because his inner cup was entirely empty.
The Reality of Burnout: When you are pushed past your limit without a safety net, you stop reacting based on your values, and you start reacting out of pure survival.
Not long ago, I found myself standing in my own version of that dry wilderness.
We were just starting a brand-new school year—a time that already demands immense energy. Right as the year began, my close colleague left for her home country and wasn’t able to return. Just like Moses losing Miriam, I didn’t just lose a teammate; I lost my anchor. I lost the one person who shared the daily weight of the classroom and understood its unique challenges without explanation.
Instead of having time to process this, the demands multiplied. I was surrounded by challenges, trying to manage the new school year while desperately searching for a new coworker.
Physically, emotionally, and mentally, I was stretched terrifyingly thin. With no time for proper rest, every daily task felt like trying to force water from a rock. I could feel my patience fraying and my usual professional calm slipping, simply because I was being forced to carry a two-person load completely alone.
If you are currently standing in your workplace feeling isolated and overwhelmed, please hear me: losing a trusted partner leaves a void that "working harder" cannot fix. Moses’s story reminds us that even the most resilient people break when they try to carry the world alone.
When your support drops to zero, your boundaries must go up. Be gentle with yourself. You are doing the work of many, but you are only one human being. Instead of continuing to strike the rock out of sheer exhaustion, let your breaking point be the moment you step back, let go, and softly pray the words of the song "Lord, I am burnt out but I am at your feet" [00:00]—because it is only in those broken places that we can truly find the space to rest, heal, and become whole again [01:42].