THE ESSENTIAL GUIDE TO BURNOUT:
Overcoming excess stress
By Andrew and Elizabeth Proctor
Lion. 19 pages. £8.99
ISBN 978 0 745 955 858
This is not a Christian book and is not one that I would have on our church bookstall or want the congregation I love and serve to read.
I am sure the book is written with the best of motives by caring people. I have no doubt that it accurately describes many of the symptoms of excess stress and resultant burnout and brownout. I am equally sure that some of its practical suggestions, supported by case histories, may be of help to those who are burned/browned out. However, the problem is in what is missing in the methods of recovery proposed.
Without God
The book’s solutions are Godless and humanistic. Whatever human wisdom the book contains, it misses the point of Proverbs and Ecclesiastes that the fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge and wisdom. While the authors do mention spirituality and prayer, it is in a very general way and they put ‘all the world’s major religions’ on an equal footing.
The book’s solutions are, therefore, Christ-less and thus dishonouring to the Lord Jesus Christ. Here in Enfield we have been benefitting from a series from Colossians under the title ‘All you need is Christ; Christ is all you need.’ Yes, believers in our Lord Jesus may and do suffer from times of excess stress. Yes, recognising the symptoms and stop-ping/resting is good (the Sabbath principle). Yes, godly Cognitive Behaviour Therapy can be helpful; we are transformed by the renewing of our minds. But any remedies sought must not be separated from the sufficiency of our merciful Shepherd King, who restores our souls as we come to him, casting all our anxiety upon him.
Finally, the book’s solutions are worldly. In Corinthians, Paul explains that we do not lose heart as we follow the Lord Jesus, as, by his mercy, ‘we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen in temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.’ (2 Corinthians 4.18) For me this book takes a ‘man-centred’ and ‘this world-focussed’ approach and for those reasons alone I cannot commend it.
