So I thought I was out of music stuff, but things keeps on popping up in my mind. So today I want to address burnout.
I guess I would define music burnout as getting so full of music that you just don’t really want to be around it. As a music major, I would say that my last two years in school I didn’t listen to music outside of what was required of me as a student. I have a friend who, after he had his senior recital, put his instrument away for seven years before picking it up again. Once you get to the point where all you do is perform, study and analyze music, you start to forget why it is you started studying music in the first place: because you love it.
How many of you have experienced church burnout? You attend church three times a week, get involved in ministries, teach Sundayschool, volunteer and get volunteered for things you didn’t really want to do.You get to the point where you wonder why it is that you’re there and what was the reason you joined in the first place: Because you love Jesus and wanted to be in fellowship with other believers.
We can get so caught up in the church thing, doing this and doing that and feeling guilty and being made to feel guilty if we don’t do what we are asked that we start to lose the focus: Jesus.
You see, Jesus doesn’t want what you do, Jesus wants you. I think that we can get lost if we focus so much on doing things that we lose sight of why we are doing them.
Bringing this back around to music. You can burnout as a worship leader. You forget about why you are singing and who you are singing to, and start to focus on the music, the people, and what would sound best or look good.
Sometimes we need to take a step back, asses our priorities, and see if what we are focusing on is doing instead of being. I’ll talk more about that next time. Peace.
