He Paid The Price

A cartoon strip depicted a father attempting to engage his son in earnest conversation. The teenager is slouched down on the sofa, looking very depressed. His father seems concerned, trying very hard to communicate with his boy. He says, “Of course we all want a purpose in life… but I promise you that after awhile, you’ll be too busy making a living to worry about it.”

It was five pm on a Friday in a big downtown office. Some of the employees were already heading for the exits. Others were preparing to do so. Said one woman who had experienced an unusually bad day, “I’ve been wondering, why do we keep coming here day-after-day?” With that, a man slumped behind the next desk says, “I think it has something to do with rent.”

The Dean of the Duke University Chapel has written a book on “burnout,” particularly among the clergy. He interviewed scores of pastors who had “called it quits” because, in their own minds,…