What’s Life-giving?

Early this year I was asked how much of my work was life-giving for me. Things were at a low ebb then, so I answered something like 30%. By that I meant that most of my work (some 70%) was draining.

What’s scary is that I didn’t even see this as a problem. I was doing good and important things, and someone had to do them.

I discovered that I was wrong. The person who asked me this question is a counselor who works with missionaries, pastors, and expatriates at the Missionary Health Institute in Toronto. He told me that I should be aiming for an 80/20 split. 80% of my work should be life-giving. Anything less than this and it’s less than ideal, and maybe even damaging. When you get down to where I was, it’s a recipe for burnout.

The past few months have been about creating a sustainable way of living and ministering. Part of this has been working at reducing what’s draining and focusing on what’s life-giving. The amazing thing is that there are plenty of people who find it life-giving to do what drains me.

I wish I had learned this earlier. We can never eliminate everything that’s draining, but we can at least work at getting it close to 20%