A lot of people think they have to be special or do amazing things to be loved. As parents we must love our kids for who they are — not what they do, and sometimes…in spite of what they do, much like God does with all of us. This need for love coupled with the perceived expectation that we must do many amazing things to earn it, is perhaps what drives people to be so busy, and why so many feel anxious. There is also a fear of being “mundane” or “ordinary”. Putting aside that these are selfish ambitions (Philippians 2:3-4 warns about this), they may sound like a way to better yourself — but there is a dark side to this, the pursuit of novelty. In The Screwtape Letters by C. S. Lewis, one of the letters to a fellow demon states that the human’s desire for novelty can be increased by playing on the human’s fear of the ‘Same Old Thing’. This increased desire for novelty leads to bad and possibly dangerous decisions, especially regarding health, relationships and finances. It also prevents us from sticking with something long enough to get good at it (e.g. — being Christian, being married, exercise, a job…).
All of this leads to the same place — burnout. This is not what God wants for us — at least not as an end in itself. If we find ourselves in this place and also realize that all those things we were chasing are meaningless and empty — then God will use these circumstances to draw us closer to Him and fill us with true meaning. God loves us for who we are and he wants us to slow down so we can be open to opportunities to serve Him and focus on what God is doing for us right now, rather than worrying about our TODO list. We can’t do this if we are hurrying all the time — we need time to be calm and listen to God. Sure enough, God provided a whole day for this—the Sabbath. Psalm 46:10, NASB reads, “Cease striving and know that I am God”. In other words, calm down, wake up and stop fearing. There is no need for fear if we trust God’s commands are for our own good. One of the many ways we are blessed is by helping others and putting others above ourselves — that is, serving the ‘least of these’ as Jesus said in Matthew 25:40 (Parable of the Sheep and the Goats). Jesus will increase your spiritual fulfillment when you do such acts and serve Him.
When Jesus said, ‘blessed are those who are poor in spirit’ (Matthew 5:3), I think he is referring to those who have reached this burnout phase, it’s those who through self-absorption have exhausted everything they have in pursuit of pleasing others or themselves. Whether the object (or rather idol) was career, money, fame, or self, the end result is the same — emptiness and loneliness. This is not a good place to be. In The Great Divorce by C. S. Lewis, he refers to Hell as a place where everyone is self-absorbed and quarrelsome with their neighbors. They can get any material objects (or stuff) they want and build houses simply by thinking them into existence. However, the ‘stuff’ they acquire and the houses they live in never are quite right. The ‘stuff’ doesn’t satisfy needs and the houses don’t even provide protection from the rain or intruders. The inhabitants are never really happy and fight with each other a lot. As a result they all keep moving farther and farther away from each other because they fight so much. This leads to more isolation and everyone is lonely.
There is no need to be special or do amazing things to prove our worth. Instead we need to love one another, be forgiving and not be quarrelsome as the people in Hell were in The Great Divorce. God does want us to use our talents to glorify and serve Him, rather than for selfish ambition. We must slow down in order to listen to God — especially when it comes to serving others (think of the Good Samaritan and the people who passed by). God loves us because we are His creation — not because of our achievements or stuff we acquire. You don’t have to be special to be loved.