Someone asked a question on Harmony Central

They asked who had burned out.

Their experience was that they gigged for 10 years solid, bars etc, just got fed up with the energy, time, drunk-management and general hassle of playing out. There's a lot more stuff in their post, but that's all beside the point.

But it got me thinking.

I posted:

Hmmm. My experience is slightly different, slightly similar.

Started playing when I was 16, put a youth group band together when I was 18 and have played worship in churches ever since with 2 breaks (12 months and 6 months) the last being around 12 or 14 years ago.

It's different, in that the audience are mostly sober and the sets are shorter, while there is a lot of inspiration. But the last 10 years I've been gradually deteriorating, being less inspired, less adventurous, less excited and my playing has slid to a level below mediocrity. I can't even play a decent lead line right now, but I'm still bashing out rhythm stuff (that I'm good at, but don't really enjoy) every week.

Unlike you, it's unusual to have major bust-ups with band mates - more often you go away frustrated with each other, wishing they'd do stuff differently. Much modern worship is bland, tuneless and gutless, often with just a single good chorus hook line plus 4 verses and a middle 8 of bleh. This adds to the frustration, and the modern pop-guitar styles are just lousy - they stink to me.

And I have a demanding full time job, plus run the worship band, plus run a house group, and in this time my children have.... well one is 20 and the other with Jesus.

So I guess, yes, I'm probably burned out right now in a way. Not mental breakdown and thrashing style, so much as swimming through quicksand, getting more tired and less inspired.

Thanks for posting this. I've not stepped back and considered what's going on in this way before. Hopefully I can do something about it.

There's a lot more to my feelings of 'burned-outness' than this, and some has to do with excessive pre-occupation with the computer and internet - something that has a good side and I enjoy, yet has become too much. These are aspects of my life and personality I must control, and I can't just simply cope by avoidance/abstinence as I would have done in times past.

But control is sometimes difficult, requiring energy and the need to deal with the consequences when control fails.


This morning at the mens prayer meeting (7.30am on a Saturday morning!) a bunch of thoughts and insights crawled out of the woodwork, and this covers and builds on some of them. Not sure where things go from here, but I believe I've been round a particular loop because I need to build character in certain areas, and another intersection is approaching where, if they're built, I might step onto a different highway.

Or not.

We'll see.