As new national data shows, Americans are more overloaded than ever, a South Shore congregation is reframing rest — not as a luxury, but as a lifeline of hope, health, and love.
There’s a trophy that millions of people carry around every day. It isn’t on display — it’s invisible. But everybody sees it. You can see it in the dark circles under their eyes. You can hear it in the snap of a voice when someone asks a simple question. You can feel it in the heaviness people carry into every room they enter.
That trophy is called burnout. And the troubling thing is how readily we hand it out like an award. Someone says, “I’ve been so busy,” and we nod in admiration. Someone says, “I haven’t taken a vacation in three years,” and we act impressed. Somewhere along the way we confused exhaustion with excellence — and here in the Tahoe Basin, where so many of us juggle multiple jobs, long commutes over the hill, and the demands of a seasonal economy, we are paying a real price for it.
This isn’t just a personal failing or a “you” problem. The numbers say it’s a national condition.
THIS ISN’T JUST YOU 50%+ of Americans say they feel loneliness every single day 76% say the future of the nation is a significant source of stress 82% of employees are at risk of burnout in 2025 1 in 3 workers feel “often or always” stressed by their job SOURCE: APA, STRESS IN AMERICA 2025
The rate of high stress among employees climbed from 33% in 2023 to 38% in 2024 — heading the wrong direction. We are not a tired people. We are a structurally overwhelmed people. And that, I’d argue, is a cultural moment worth speaking into.
The marginless life
Dr. Richard Swenson, a physician, wrote a book called Margin that I think nearly everyone alive should read. He defines margin simply: it’s the space between your load and your limit. Read that again — the space between your load and your limit. Most of us have none. Our load has met our limit and then blown right past it.
“Marginless is the disease of our decade — and margin is the cure.”
Here’s what that does to a person. When you’re overloaded, you lose joy. You lose peace. You lose patience with the people you love most. You stop participating in your own life and start merely surviving it. And the cost isn’t only emotional — it’s physical, and the research is sobering.
BURNOUT LEAVES A MARK ON THE BODY +85% higher risk of prehypertension among those with a history of burnout +10% higher risk of cardiovascular hospitalization 83% of workers report losing sleep over work stress 7→12% rise in post-traumatic stress symptoms in a single year (2023–24) SOURCE: FRONTIERS IN PSYCHIATRY (2024); APA STRESS IN AMERICA 2025
That same body of research links a history of burnout to type 2 diabetes, chronic pain, gastrointestinal problems and — most sobering of all — a higher risk of mortality before age 45. Stress-related eating disorders, meanwhile, rose from 6% to 9% in just one year. These are not the numbers of a nation of complainers. They are the numbers of people running with no margin, whose bodies are telling them a truth their schedules won’t.
God gave you warning lights
More than half of burned-out employees — 51% — say they feel “used up” at the end of every workday, and 44% report feeling emotionally drained. I’ve come to think of those feelings the way I think of the dashboard lights in a car. The irritability, the fatigue, the short fuse with the people you love: those aren’t character flaws. They’re warning lights. The only real question is whether you’ll pull over, or keep driving until the engine blows.
The text I keep returning to is Mark 6, where the disciples come back from an exhausting stretch of good and important work. Jesus doesn’t pile on more. He doesn’t say, “Great job — now go do it again.” He says something far wiser:
“Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest.”MARK 6:31 (NIV)
Notice that “come away” is a command, not a suggestion — and that even the most important mission in human history still made room for rest. That has something to say to every one of our calendars.
What margin actually gives you
No one fights for margin unless they believe it’s worth the fight, so it’s worth naming what it produces. Margin brings peace of mind — space to think and breathe instead of hurry. It brings better health, because the body was designed to need rest; a race car can’t be repaired at 200 miles an hour, and the pit stop isn’t wasted time, it’s what makes the race possible.
Margin also builds stronger relationships. This is the dimension the APA’s latest report makes impossible to ignore: nearly 7 in 10 Americans say their closest relationships don’t provide enough emotional support. The loneliness epidemic and the burnout epidemic are, I’m convinced, the same epidemic. Overload destroys the very margin we need to be present to the people we love. And finally, margin keeps us available — for the unexpected good, the divine interruptions that so often become the best chapters of a life.
Five steps from burnout toward balance
- Accept your human limitations.
You are not God; you are human, and limits are features, not failures. “I have learned that everything has limits.” (Psalm 119:96)
- Expect problems.
Jesus said you will have trouble, not that you might. Build buffer into your schedule so a single disruption doesn’t collapse the whole day.
- Put space in your schedule.
No one will hand you margin. Find one block this week and leave it empty — no appointments, no goals. White space. It may feel terrifying; do it anyway.
- Prune your activities.
Good is often the enemy of best. What was right for a previous season but isn’t right for this one? Cut it, make room, and watch what grows in the space.
- Do less and trust God more.
Even the Apostle Paul burned out — and discovered that the pressure pushed him to rely less on his own strength and more on God. Faith, not busyness, is what moves mountains.
The glass balls
Years ago, then-Coca-Cola CEO Brian Dyson offered an image I haven’t been able to shake. Picture life as juggling five balls: work, family, health, friends and spirit. Work, he said, is a rubber ball — drop it and it bounces back. But the other four are made of glass. Drop one and it’s scuffed, nicked, or shattered, and never quite the same.
Some of us are dropping glass balls right now — not because we don’t love our families or our health or our faith, but because we’re so overloaded and moving so fast that we don’t notice what’s falling. That’s why I keep insisting this is a hope issue. Hope doesn’t live in frantic, burned-out hearts. It grows in the quiet place. It’s nourished by rest, by trust, by the rhythms of a life with margin built in.
A few questions worth sitting with: Is my pace of life out of control? (Anything out of control is headed for a wreck.)Am I running on empty? (It’s hard to fake full.)Am I dropping any glass balls — family, health, friends, or spirit? When I rest, do I feel guilty? (Rest is not a four-letter word.)Am I putting first things first?
A rhythm to start this week
Divert daily — Divide each day into sections and protect at least one from obligation.
Withdraw weekly — Carve out one day focused on rest and reflection, not productivity.
Abandon annually — Take an extended break from the demands of work. Not optional — essential.
The American Psychological Association calls what we’re living through “a crisis of connection.” I’d call it what older wisdom called it first: we were not made to live this way. The invitation to come away to a quiet place and rest is still open — not to the version of you that has it all figured out or the calendar finally cleared, but to you, right now, worn down and hoping there’s a better way.
There is. And here in our corner of the mountains, it can start today.
You were made for more than survival.
You were made for hope.
By Pastor Greg
About this piece: Pastor Greg serves at Lake Tahoe Community Presbyterian Church in South Lake Tahoe. This article is adapted from the message “Pursuing Balance in an Unbalanced World,” part of the church’s “Ignite Your Spirit” series on hope. National figures are drawn from the American Psychological Association’s Stress in America 2025 report and a 2024 peer-reviewed study in Frontiers in Psychiatry. The congregation worships at 2733 Lake Tahoe Blvd., South Lake Tahoe, CA. For more information about Pastor Greg or the church, visit LakeTahoe.Church.