Though the idiom "burning the candle at both ends" is at least 400 years old, the condition it is describing is older yet. Psalm 127 is attributed to King Solomon, and dates back nearly 3000 years ago. King Solomon writes: "It is in vain that you rise up early and go late to rest, eating the bread of anxious toil." Why? Because God "gives to his beloved sleep."
Lord, apparently restless working isn't a modern phenomenon. For millennia, it seems, people have pushed themselves past healthy limits. We push ourselves for many reasons. Some are trying to pay off debts. Some are trying to accumulate wealth. Some are trying to provide for their families. Some believe in their work's cause and seek to be of service to others. Some get a sense of identity and importance from their work and can't stop working. Our drive to overwork may or may not arise from good intentions. However, whenever we overwork, we are pushing ourselves past the boundaries you set for us. This is not achieving our full potential; it is burning ourselves out.
Fundamentally, our drive to overwork comes from our failure to fully trust you. We don't trust your provision will be enough for us, so we work harder and harder to get what we think we should have. We don't trust who you've made us to be is enough, so we work harder to be more and more important so others will like us (or so that we'll like ourselves). We don't trust you'll take care of our families, or our clients, so we work and work and work to help them, as if we were their god and they depended on us for life and breath and every good thing. Lord, we repent of taking your job for ourselves, as if we could do a better job.
Lord, help us to know the difference between working hard and over working. We do want our hard work to glorify you, be a blessing to others, and bear good fruit for ourselves and our families. But we don't want to get lost, seeking in our work what only you can provide for us. We can never work enough that we will fill the hole in our hearts that is your throne. Instead of trusting ourselves and our work, Jesus, help us trust you. When we trust you, we find peace. You exhort us not to worry about food or drink or clothes, because you will take care of us. Lord, help us work hard to care for our families and to care for our clients, but help us ultimately trust their well-being to your benevolent care. Lord, help us work hard, and help us accept the gift of rest as well. We trust you, and we delight in your care for us, O Lord. In Jesus' name, amen.
