It was around July of 2009 when it really hit me: I was in trouble.

I had graduated from Atlanta’s Oglethorpe University in May with a bachelor’s degree in communications and was, perhaps unwisely, assuming that there would be some form of job out in the ‘real world’ waiting for me. After a few months of sending out resume after resume, calling business after business, receiving no response, a ‘no’ response or, in the case of a couple places, going in to interview and then receiving a ‘no’, I was frustrated and tired of looking. Call it a form of burnout. ‘No’ is one of those words that just saps your energy.

Thankfully, after a short trip home to South Dakota for the Fourth of July (along with some not-so-gentle prodding from my wonderful mother), I decided to do something I hadn’t done for my four years of college: go to church. For whatever reason, church and spirituality just hadn’t been my highest priority while I was in school. Sleeping in, forgetting to go, not having a specific church to go to, and especially just simply not caring all took precedence in those four years. It wasn’t necessarily what I liked but it was what was easiest and in college, easy was much less difficult to justify. But at this point now, I was frustrated and tired and crashing and burning. I was willing to try anything to break me out of the rut I had fallen into.

 That willingness is what led me that next Sunday to Chamblee United Methodist in Atlanta, just a couple miles from my apartment that I shared with my best friend. As soon as the sermon started up, I knew this was where I needed to be. It was one of those moments of absolute clarity where you just know. The words the pastor said, the theme of the sermon…they were absolutely what I needed to hear at that time. It was like God was talking directly to me and I understood just how important that was. The next few months were some of the most spiritually fulfilling of my life. I joined the choir and just enjoyed being a part of something greater than myself.

Unfortunately, all things must come to an end.

Near the end of October, I realized that, with still no job or prospects, my ability to pay rent had nearly run out. Thus, with a heavy heart and a moving company behind me, I left Atlanta in November to head four hours away to Nashville, where my parents had only recently relocated. And Nashville is where I remain today. I still have not been able to find work and that same frustration, that same anger, and that same mental exhaustion is back again.

I’ll be honest. It’s been difficult to maintain a steady level of faith, especially with the way things are right now. I came to Nashville because I had a very strong feeling that a particular event was going to occur and, well, it didn’t. It’s been a challenge to stay upbeat and I know I’m not the only person out there with that feeling.

Platitudes and clichés like “God will provide” and “Everything happens for a reason” are, of course, said with the very best of intentions. Those people who say them really do believe them and expect that they will provide some relief from worry and stress. They are only said to help.

Unfortunately, they are just clichés and phrases. Words and sentences strung together with a little bit of meaning behind them. They don’t quite have the intended effect when it seems, at times, that God is not providing or that what is happening – or is not happening – doesn’t seem to be for any reason. They don’t take away any stress when you get turned down time after time, when you can’t find anyone that will give you an opportunity, or when your applications go almost entirely unnoticed. Simply put, even with the intended comforts, it is not difficult to lose hope.

All that being said, it’s easy to be faithful when everything is going right. It’s how we react, how faithful we remain in the bad times, the frustrating times, and the darker times that show the depth of our faith. For me, I believe that the right church will come soon, as will the right job. God will provide. He always does.

--By Aaron Cross, freelance writer who lives in Nashville, TN

How do you handle burnout? Does your faith keep you steady? 

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