Leadership Fatigue

 

Being a leader is hard. You have to take responsibility for those who follow and who participate, and the fatigue that comes mentally, physically, and spiritually can cause a leader to burn out. The problem with most leaders people will claim is “they do not delegate,” to other leaders. This can be true, and sometimes it is not, sometimes the other leaders do not manage their responsibility in the matter, a good example was the disciples who had trouble casting out a demon in a boy, and Jesus had given these disciples the power to caste out demons (), and yet they failed and everyone came wanting Jesus to fix it. The response of the Son of God and God Incarnate is a great example of what it feels like to be a leader,

“You unbelieving generation,” Jesus replied, “how long shall I stay with you? How long shall I put up with you? Bring the boy to me.” (Mark 9:19). 

Leadership fatigue hits you when you have been the one keeping the ball rolling for the project, or the plot in a story, or anything in which you lead, and rest of the people involved expect you to like Atlas hold the planet of all the problems and preformance on your back, while they only have to follow and do little interjections, most of them to please themselves. Many people who get Leadership Fatigue get to Burnout, and what happens is they resign thier post, and example was Hank Hanagraaf, who was Bible Answer Man, he grew weary of having to be a leader who knew every bible answer, and ended up in a false church because he was fatigued. Worse people growing tired of it all renounce their faith and apostatize, leaving the Kingdom of Heaven all together. 

However, leadership fatigue and burn out is not just in the circles of the Kingdom, it is in jobs, and even recreational things like role playing. When you are leader, you are expected to champion and carry everyone along like Moses did the Israelites in the Wilderness, but probably Moses was thrilled he did not have to go with those murmuring generation into the Promise Land. Leaders get the hardest post in anything, wither it is for fun or work, because they carry so much responsibility everyone expects them to have miracle answers, and most people come to them to complain and criticize; when they do not shoulder hardly any if any of the burden of leading. We see this rampant online on Reddit, YouTube, Ticktok, and etc where people roast leaders and complain perpetually, when they have no clue what it is like to have to carry the weight, the atlas of responsibility on one’s shoulders. Honestly, I totally understand Jesus’ response, “How long do I have to put up with you?!” (Mark 9:19). 

Leadership is a curse. The problem lies in that it is a gift, and most people who have it are instant to recognize, and they usually will take the post of leader because they see so much that needs to be managed, fixed, and tended to or lead. However, then they get overwhelmed by the Peanut Gallery, throwing peanuts, and mocking, and even sabotaging at times. You get the jealous types, who want to wear the crown, and feel important, but they do not want the stress of responsibility, they want hollow crowns , and they are in every church, work place, and fanbase sniping at the leadership because they envy the limelight, but not carrying the Atlas on one’s shoulders. 

More and more leaders are transitioning from fatigue to burn out, and I have no answer for how one manages that. Even Jesus clearly was experiencing it with his apostles in Mark Chapter Nine, Verse Nineteen. For our Lord and God, his answer was often to go away privately to prayer, “But Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed,” (Luke 5:16), “After He had dismissed them, He went up on the mountain by Himself to pray. When evening came, He was there alone,” (Matthew 14:23), “Then Jesus, realizing that they were about to come and make Him king by force, withdrew again to a mountain by Himself,” (John 6:15), “In those days Jesus went out to the mountain to pray, and He spent the night in prayer to God.” (Luke 6:12)  When the crowds were exhausting him, and he had his fill of them wanting him to be a king, he would go to mountain top or somewhere to pray alone. I thin this is crucial, even most medical professionals advise meditation alone, and while I speak against the Eastern religious practices of Buddhist meditation and Yoga, I do believe we can follow Jesus’ example and get alone with The Holy Trinity and recharge spiritually, emotionally, and even physically. This I think can be a in moment answer, but I think more leaders are going to need to take breaks, take vacations, and even consider stepping down if its getting to heavy to manage. It would help to raise up and train other leaders, and that is ideal, to have a group of fellow leaders to share the responsibility with, but as seen with Jesus and the Twelve, that does not always work at the time, and so you gotta find a means to cope or take a break. 

I think we are going to see more and more leadership burn out in Protestant Churches which do not delegate as well as others, and in the workforce, and even in recreational places were we have fun. More people will opt for alone time, to play games alone, and etc because they have had their fill of the Wilderness People in their lives complaining about meat and manna. Amen.