The Holy Hustle Is a Lie (And It’s Burning You Out)
🎯 In This Episode, You’ll Discover:
- The hidden lie behind the “holy hustle” myth
- Why burnout is not proof of faithfulness
- 3 biblical mindset shifts that protect your creativity and calling
- How to recover from spiritual exhaustion without losing your edge
📝 Episode Summary
You’ve been told that hustle is holy. That if you’re tired, you’re doing something right. That burnout is a badge of faith.
But what if that’s a lie wrapped in spiritual language?
In this raw episode, Jim exposes the toxic mindset behind the “holy hustle” — a false gospel that glorifies burnout and shames rest. He shares his own story of crashing under pressure and the years-long journey to rebuild from a place of biblical rest.
If you’re a faith-driven creative who’s tired, drained, and wondering why the grind feels godless… this one’s for you.
✝️ Faith Connection
Jesus modeled rhythm, not burnout (Luke 5:16). He withdrew to rest and reconnect — not because He was weak, but because He was wise. Rest isn’t rebellion. It’s spiritual maturity.
💡 Key Takeaways
- Burnout Isn’t a Badge – Exhaustion isn’t proof of obedience.
- Productivity Without Presence = Performance – Just because you’re doing a lot doesn’t mean God’s in it.
- Obedience > Outcomes – Let God define success. Your job is to stay aligned.
❓ Reflection Question
Where have you confused hustle for holiness in your own life?
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Transcript
Welcome to Online Business for Christian Creatives, the show that helps you build a business that honors God, fuels your creativity and actually pays the bills.
Speaker A:I'm your host, Jim Burgoon, leadership coach, Faith first entrepreneur, and a guy who's made just about every mistake so you don't have to let's get into it.
Speaker B:Somewhere along the line, the modern Christian creative has equated a exhaustion with obedience or exhaust serving.
Speaker B:But we're going to talk about that today on the show.
Speaker B:Welcome to Online Christian welcome to Online Business for Christian Creatives.
Speaker B:I'm your host, Jim Ragoon.
Speaker B:And we're here to dive into something, honestly that has wrecked me and is probably have wrecked you somewhere along the line.
Speaker B:And that's burnout.
Speaker B:And I'm not talking about the type of burnout that comes after a hard week, because after a hard week you're tired, you want to lay down, you don't feel like you have enough energy to do anything.
Speaker B:That's not what I'm talking about.
Speaker B:I'm talking about the type of exhaustion that creeps in over time where if you take a rest or you try to sleep, it doesn't go away.
Speaker B:And it just feels like it's getting worse.
Speaker B:It feels like it's getting deeper, that something is off.
Speaker B:And I coined the term this way a long time ago.
Speaker B:I don't know if it was originally for me, but I remember writing a blog about this and I called it functional burnout.
Speaker B:And it's not a biblical concept.
Speaker B:And even though we've been made to feel like it's biblical, it's not.
Speaker B:It's actually far away from the Bible.
Speaker B:Because you and I, if you've read the Bible, you and I know that the Bible says we have to come from a place of rest.
Speaker B:And if you're going into ministry, into business, and you're chasing every time the door opens, you're at church serving every time the light goes on, you're at your business trying to do something, trying to build something, and you find this, this feeling creeping in.
Speaker B:You're not in alignment.
Speaker B:And I'm going to tell you that you're not building your calling from a place of rest.
Speaker B:So let's get into it today to unpack this whole concept of functional burnout and the biblical nature of it.
Speaker B:We've got to start with the culture of Christianity and hustle.
Speaker B:Now, many of us grew up in a household that taught hustle.
Speaker B:You had a parent if you, especially if you're older, you had a parent that really focused on what you can do what you can produce.
Speaker B:And that said, if I can do and produce this and I can keep doing it, then I'm going to be rewarded.
Speaker B:And then if you didn't produce, produced, you were shamed, you were guilted and all those things.
Speaker B:We saw that in our grades, we saw that in our.
Speaker B:If you built, like, businesses as a kid, I built two or three trying to, as I was growing up.
Speaker B:And you saw that good things produced good rewards.
Speaker B:And if you somehow missed the mark or the expectation, you were shame and guilted.
Speaker B:Now, Christianity and actually cultural entrepreneurship has not changed that.
Speaker B:If you're an entrepreneur, and maybe you're a Christian, maybe you're not, but if you're an entrepreneur, what does it taught?
Speaker B:What does it teach you?
Speaker B:You're.
Speaker B:You gotta wake up, you gotta hustle, you gotta grind.
Speaker B:And this is the culture we live in.
Speaker B:Hustle and grind, hustle and grind until you cannot go anymore.
Speaker B:And then you go more, right?
Speaker B:Because you have to build the business, you have to build the six figures, you got to build the seven figures, you got to do the thing.
Speaker B:And then we get this toxic culture out there that says, if you're not hustling like me, then you're not good enough or you're not going to be at a place where you can do the things that you're supposed to do.
Speaker B:And then we get into the church, and this is a soapbox I have.
Speaker B:Because with the church that we say, hey, don't hustle, rest.
Speaker B:But yet we allow every single person to be in six different ministries every time the door is open, they're there serving, they're there at the service, they're there in their ministries or they're doing, and they're pouring out and pouring out.
Speaker B:And because the name Christian has been attached to it, it's somehow different than the culture hustle.
Speaker B:And I'm going to tell you it's not.
Speaker B:Both sides of the house are going to burn you out.
Speaker B:Because it's not a place of rest.
Speaker B:It's not an access of your gifts.
Speaker B:It's you obsessively trying to chase what you believe God is calling you to, whether it be the successful business, the successful ministry.
Speaker B:And we're chasing these things because somewhere along the line, we shame and guilt ourselves into believing the more we do, the more we'll be rewarded and the better we are.
Speaker B:And somehow, if we miss it, we're not going to be able to do all that God's called us to.
Speaker B:And this is just a lie, because God even The Bible says we come from a place of rest, right?
Speaker B:We have the sabb.
Speaker B:God rests on the seventh day.
Speaker B:And we.
Speaker B:What we're doing is we're attaching the name of Jesus to overworking.
Speaker B:But it doesn't make it holy.
Speaker B:It just makes it unbiblical.
Speaker B:And we just feel spiritual.
Speaker B:And we're romanticizing grind culture with spiritual language, which is causing more burnout.
Speaker B:And we have to step back and see what we're really doing.
Speaker B:Because God doesn't want tired saints.
Speaker B:God is looking for a culture to step up and step out that counterculture that Peter talks about in order to build the kingdom, advance the kingdom.
Speaker B:And he doesn't do that with tired soldiers.
Speaker B:Jesus says, come all you weary and heavy burden, I will give you rest.
Speaker B:This is not something that stops.
Speaker B:We're supposed to do all this stuff from a continual place of rest, not fighting for rest.
Speaker B:And Jesus didn't call us to do more.
Speaker B:He called us to be led to.
Speaker B:To do what God's showing us.
Speaker B:He called us to obey.
Speaker B:And just because that's one area doesn't mean we have to do everything.
Speaker B:Even in Acts, I believe it was Acts chapter 6, where the apostles were like, we weren't called to serve tables.
Speaker B:So let's find people who can.
Speaker B:They delegate it.
Speaker B:But yet we, in the culture of Christian entrepreneurship somehow think that we have to do everything, every section, every bit.
Speaker B:And it comes down to the fact that we're burning ourselves out.
Speaker B:We don't trust the process, we don't trust God.
Speaker B:And we've grown up in a culture from our house that says, says, if you hustle, you'll be rewarded.
Speaker B:If you don't, you're worthless.
Speaker B:And that is somehow shifted to the church that says, if you show up, if you pray, if you do all of these things all the time, every day, 24 7, you're holy, you're great.
Speaker B:And if you don't, you're backsliding.
Speaker B:And I think the culture and Christianity share the heart of what it is, except they change the language to where when you're in the Christian entrepreneur space or you're in the church and now you feel somehow like you're doing okay, like this is somehow spiritual.
Speaker B:And that's not what it is.
Speaker B:That's not what Jesus wanted us to do.
Speaker B:And everybody hits a breaking point.
Speaker B:Like I hit a breaking point a while ago, and I'm still recovering from the breaking point.
Speaker B:Like I was.
Speaker B:There was a portion, like my wife.
Speaker B:I have chronic illness.
Speaker B:My wife has some mental health issues.
Speaker B:And when we were first getting diagnosed, I was planning a church.
Speaker B:I started a business, I was freelancing because we needed the extra money.
Speaker B:So I was writing, I had a blog and I was coaching.
Speaker B:And then, then I also was a teacher and a fifth grade teacher at the time.
Speaker B:And so I'm doing all of these things.
Speaker B:Then we just got our first child at this time.
Speaker B:And with all of this going on, trying to be a church planner, trying to work at a school, blogging, coaching, parenting, brand new parent, by the way, and then having a wife have her conditions, me having my conditions, let's just say that I had no energy, I was completely burnt out, and I was almost to the point where I just gave up completely.
Speaker B:And I'm still fighting the remnants of that 15, 20 years later.
Speaker B:But it felt spiritual.
Speaker B:Why?
Speaker B:Because I was pastoring, I was doing all the things, I was taking care of my family.
Speaker B:I was starting the business so I can reach more people and have greater impact and greater things that I'm.
Speaker B:We're all supposed to be doing.
Speaker B:But I was spiritually dry and I was emotionally spent.
Speaker B:Every message I was doing, sure, people got saved, but I felt empty on the inside.
Speaker B:Every message was never for me.
Speaker B:It was always for them.
Speaker B:Everything I was doing on my blog was more a cry for help.
Speaker B:The blog's name was Soul Care for the Misfits.
Speaker B:Because I was like, man, I need some soul care and I'm a misfit, so let's do this.
Speaker B:And.
Speaker B:But I was emotionally completely spent, like I had nothing.
Speaker B:So I was pouring out in a business, at school, at a ministry in my family from an empty cup.
Speaker B:I never allowed the cup to be open because I shrouded all of that in spiritual terms.
Speaker B:And it was like I was trying to earn grace, but it was the fast track to completely functionally burning out and amping up the chronic illnesses that I have to.
Speaker B:Now I have autoimmune.
Speaker B:And there was a moment of honesty where I was like, I was hustling for God instead of walking with God.
Speaker B:And did you, have you ever had that experience where you're just sitting there trying to just, you're working for God, you're hustling, you're in your ministry, you think you're calling, you're writing the book, you're doing the podcast, you're doing the business, you're helping the family, you're working the job, you're at the church every time and you're doing all the spiritual things, but then you're like, wait a Minute of all of this stuff, where does God want me?
Speaker B:One of the hardest things for me to actually admit foot in church.
Speaker B:And that's okay because I came from a witchcraft and atheist background and.
Speaker B:And I want to reach people who may never darken the door of church because I want them to have a relationship with Jesus Christ.
Speaker B:And it was the hardest thing for me to realize that I was.
Speaker B:I was doing all the work for God and never working with God or never walking with God.
Speaker B:And it was very hard.
Speaker B:This was like 10 years ago, 13 maybe.
Speaker B:That revelation hit me and it took me a number of years to even change it, and then a number of more years to recover from the stuff that I did that caused me to functionally burn out.
Speaker B:And then we get into the scriptures.
Speaker B:And Luke 5:15 says, Jesus often would withdraw to pray.
Speaker B:So he modeled intentional rest and intentional relationship.
Speaker B:He would withdraw in order to the solitude, the quiet places, in order to pray.
Speaker B:Genesis, God had a rhythm.
Speaker B:He worked six days and he rested on the seventh.
Speaker B:And maybe you heard this.
Speaker B:It wasn't like God needed to rest.
Speaker B:It was God.
Speaker B:But God rested to give us the model that says we can rest knowing the work of the week has been done and the reality of the new week will start and the work will begin again.
Speaker B:But we don't need to worry about that.
Speaker B:We need to take those moments of rest, those Sabbath moments.
Speaker B:You don't need a whole Sabbath day, but you do need Sabbath moments that fill you up.
Speaker B:Fill your cup up.
Speaker B: Matthew: Speaker B:Jesus invites the weary to rest.
Speaker B:Come, all you heavy burden labored.
Speaker B:I will give you rest.
Speaker B:My yoke is easy and light.
Speaker B:My burden is light.
Speaker B:So we understand like Scripture like that says, hey, you're being wrecked.
Speaker B:You're functioning burnout.
Speaker B:Come with me and I'll make sure that you don't experience that, that you can work from a place of rest while I help you carry, or I'll actually carry the burdens.
Speaker B:You ever see that?
Speaker B:That one?
Speaker B:That one, what was it?
Speaker B:The poem, the footprints in the stands where you only saw one.
Speaker B:One set of footprints is where I carried you.
Speaker B:That's what you get from that.
Speaker B:Because we're called to work from overflow, not gas fumes.
Speaker B:Let me say that one more time.
Speaker B:We're called to work from the overflow, not the gas fumes.
Speaker B:But the problem is work has become our idols.
Speaker B:And we work work until we have nothing left to do our devotion time, which is our building, our relationship with Jesus, worship, prayer, journal, all that.
Speaker B:We have nothing left to give or devote to that.
Speaker B:And we work so hard to build the things for God that we forget to spend time with God.
Speaker B:And we're working from a place of depletion, not a place of overflow.
Speaker B:And because rest was never meant to be a punishment.
Speaker B:And there's a lot of us who have a lot of trauma that feel like rest equates to shame.
Speaker B:If I rest, it's shameful and therefore there's punishment.
Speaker B:No, rest was a gift.
Speaker B:It was a rhythm.
Speaker B:Not a sign of weakness, but a sign of maturity.
Speaker B:And the more you're able to rest, the more you're going to be showing maturity and trust in the Lord and what he's done and what he's put aside.
Speaker B:And I'll give you three shifts that really change everything.
Speaker B:The way you're thinking, the way I thought.
Speaker B:Number one, burnout isn't a badge.
Speaker B:Somehow we take it as a badge of honor.
Speaker B:Like, I've burnt out, I'm exhausted, I've worked for the Lord.
Speaker B:Exhaustion isn't proof of faithfulness.
Speaker B:It's not.
Speaker B:Jesus said we're to be known by our love, not our output.
Speaker B:Just because you built a six figure business doesn't mean you have built fruit.
Speaker B:The Bible says go after fruit.
Speaker B:Love, patience, kindness, all seven fruits are found in Galatians.
Speaker B:And your business is not one of them.
Speaker B:Now your business is a blessing.
Speaker B:You should definitely work on the blessing because you heard it said broke people can't help people.
Speaker B:Sure enough, if you want to give to ministries, build.
Speaker B:What is it, schools, orphanages, things like that.
Speaker B:You need money, okay, go build a business.
Speaker B:Allow God to show you what business to build, pray and all those things.
Speaker B:And then build the business.
Speaker B:Create the income to be the giver that God has called you to be.
Speaker B:But burnout is not a badge of honor.
Speaker B:And somewhere along the line, culture has snuck into the church, has been drilled in our heads.
Speaker B:We have trauma from it, that if we're burnt out, we've done our job.
Speaker B:So we need to burn out more.
Speaker B:No, that's not how it works.
Speaker B:The second thing is productivity without presence is only performance.
Speaker B:And you've seen these people, the charismatic leaders from the stages, the charismatic leaders on social media.
Speaker B:They have so much performance about them.
Speaker B:But you wonder, where are their relationships with God?
Speaker B:Just because I get a lot done doesn't mean God's presence is on it.
Speaker B:It just means I'm good at what I do.
Speaker B:And I'm going to tell you the lie of the enemy and the lie that you have Made have told yourself the lie.
Speaker B:I told myself that if I continually and consistently show up and do the thing, then it's going to all work out.
Speaker B:That's a big lie in entrepreneurship.
Speaker B:Keep going, consistently show up, and that's it.
Speaker B:And that's not what God's saying.
Speaker B:God's saying, if you're going to go with my presence.
Speaker B:You mean even Moses was like, if you're not going, God, I'm not going.
Speaker B:And we need that tension to say, God, I'm not doing this.
Speaker B:I'm calling to be an entrepreneur.
Speaker B:Guys like, this is me personally at Jim.
Speaker B:I'm called to be an entrepreneur.
Speaker B:But if God's not going with me, I'm not going.
Speaker B:I don't care if you're going to give me a calling that I want presence.
Speaker B:Why?
Speaker B:Because I don't want performance.
Speaker B:I want impact.
Speaker B:And busyness is not the same as fruitfulness.
Speaker B:I heard it said, and I think it was even Paul Harvey one time, if you ever want to look this up from the 60s, he said it wrote, if Satan was saying to the church.
Speaker B:And then another really good one is screwtape, screwtape letters from C.S.
Speaker B:lewis.
Speaker B:And one of the things that you see, I think, is in Paul Harvey's one is busyness.
Speaker B:The devil.
Speaker B:The devil is written from the devil.
Speaker B:It says, if I can't break them or I can't take them away, I'm going to make them busy.
Speaker B:Why?
Speaker B:Because busyness is a distraction.
Speaker B:It's not a fruit.
Speaker B:And so we have to pull back and understand that we're not to be distracted, we're not to be busy.
Speaker B:We're to be fruitful and multiply.
Speaker B:We're being impactful and we're to be present and with the presence.
Speaker B:So if God's present isn't with you, stop what you're doing and just say, God, where are you?
Speaker B:And what do I need to change?
Speaker B:Because true growth comes from abiding in Christ, not constant activity.
Speaker B:Constant activity were the Pharisees.
Speaker B:They were in the streets praying.
Speaker B:They were doing all the things.
Speaker B:That's constant activity.
Speaker B:But the ones who were in the presence were the disciples who walked with Jesus.
Speaker B:They lived with all.
Speaker B:So I'm going to tell you, growth, true growth in whatever area, your business, your ministry, your life, comes from abiding in Christ, not constant activity.
Speaker B:And the last one is obedience is greater than outcomes.
Speaker B:And I think what we've done is we have so much tied to the results that our identity is in the results.
Speaker B:So the results have become an Idol.
Speaker B:So therefore what happens is we say, if I'm not getting the results, then I'm not doing what God's called me to, then that's not the case.
Speaker B:You're called to be in relationship, you're called to be his son or his.
Speaker B:His daughter.
Speaker B:But what you're going to do is you're going to be obedient and let God deal with the outcomes.
Speaker B:The plans of many are the Proverbs says, the plans of many are.
Speaker B:The plans of men are many, but the outcomes belong to the Lord.
Speaker B:I messed up a little bit on that, but I.
Speaker B:We bought it back, we're back to it.
Speaker B:So you.
Speaker B:So we follow Jesus, we pick up our cross, we don't follow trends, we crucify ourselves.
Speaker B:We're not on the culture algorithm, we're on the algorithm of God.
Speaker B:And even good coaches, we have to find the right ones who are connected to the Holy Spirit and speaking into our lives, because we're not on the culture's algorithms, we're on God's algorithm.
Speaker B:Remember that obedience is better than outcomes because obedience to Jesus flows from love, right?
Speaker B:And from that love comes surrender and service.
Speaker B:So if you want to be a person who's building a business, who isn't desperate, who isn't fearful, who isn't anxious, we have to submit to Christ and the obedience that he asks of us so that we come from a place of love.
Speaker B:And everything that we do, like Colossians, we are doing from a place of worship, because our work is worship.
Speaker B:And so here's, as we close down this episode, you're not lazy, you're not weak, you're just exhausted.
Speaker B:I want you to understand that you're not lazy, you're not weak, you're just exhausted because you've been in a place where culture and trauma has driven you to be completely pouring out whatever without ever being poured into and feeling shame when you rest.
Speaker B:But we're going to change that because God asks us where.
Speaker B:Actually, let's ask God.
Speaker B:God, where do you want us to rest today?
Speaker B:Start the day with that.
Speaker B:Every day.
Speaker B:God, where do you want us to rest now?
Speaker B:I will give you a warning.
Speaker B:Don't already think what God is going to say.
Speaker B:Don't have that.
Speaker B:Leave it open for the Holy Spirit to say whatever he may tell you at lunch, take an extra hour.
Speaker B:He may tell you, cut off work a little early, matter of fact, sleep in a little bit.
Speaker B:He may tell you today, don't do anything, go out fishing.
Speaker B:We want to be open to the Holy Spirit and what he's saying.
Speaker B:So at the end of the day, when God, when we say, God, what do you want me to do to rest?
Speaker B:Today we're open to say, what is it, Lord, that you'll have me do that will fill me up, bring me closer to you.
Speaker B:Because everything we do is about being close to Christ.
Speaker B:Bring closer to you and be able to sharpen my ax for the next day when I'm ready, or the next hour, whenever you want me to go back to work, the ax is now sharp and that I can do more in shorter amounts of time.
Speaker B:Because here's the deal.
Speaker B:Grace is greater than burnout.
Speaker B:And if you're in a place of functional burnout, if you're in place of fighting through these things again, you're not weak, you're not lost, you're just exhausted.
Speaker B:You made some decisions and it's time to make the right decisions.
Speaker B:Now we're going to go back to a place where we repent.
Speaker B:Lord, I've gone in the wrong direction.
Speaker B:I've really focused on outcomes and my work has become my work or ministry family have become an idol.
Speaker B:Lord, we repent of that.
Speaker B:But now I'm going to do the things you've called me to do.
Speaker B:So show me where that is and show me how to find the rhythm of rest inside of that.
Speaker B:And it's a process.
Speaker B:So this is not going to be a one time thing.
Speaker B:This is going to be pretty much the rest of your life.
Speaker B:Learning how to do this, overcoming mistakes when you falter or fail and do it again.
Speaker B:Because you're looking for rest.
Speaker B:Because.
Speaker B:Because the kingdom was never meant to be burnt out.
Speaker B:It was meant to be.
Speaker B:I think John Wesley said it.
Speaker B:He says, I'm going to light myself on fire and let the world watch.
Speaker B:And you, my friend, were called to be lit on fire by the Holy Spirit so that the world may be impacted by what you're building and who you are and who Christ is in your life.
Speaker B:So with that being said, wherever you are, listening, wherever you're watching, I would love for you to hit the subscribe or Follow button, leave a review, a comment and then share this episode with somebody you think it that would benefit because we want to build a community where people are benefiting from building the business, building the ministry, building the thing God's called you to in a healthy way.
Speaker B:And we want to build a community where we're supporting one another.
Speaker B:And with that all being said, I'm so grateful you're here.
Speaker B:I'm so grateful you're listening.
Speaker B:And I will see you on the next episode.
