Serving Without Burning Out
The Art of Saying Yes and Still Sleeping at Night
I have spent a good portion of my adult life trying to figure out how to serve others without accidentally setting myself on fire in the process. It turns out this is harder than it sounds. Volunteering is beautiful until you realize you have said yes to so many things that your calendar looks like a toddler scribbled on it. You want to help. You want to be useful. You want to honor God and your community. You also want to sleep at night and maybe eat a vegetable once in a while.
Somewhere along the way I started to believe that saying yes was the same thing as being faithful. If someone needed help, I said yes. If a committee needed a warm body, I said yes. If a nonprofit needed someone who could type, breathe, and show up on time, I said yes. I thought this made me generous. It mostly made me tired.
Eventually I learned that serving without burning out requires a kind of quiet discipline that does not get much applause. The discipline of choosing what is actually yours to carry.
Not everything.
Not even most things.
Just the things that align with your gifts, your season of life, your health, and the small corner of the world God has entrusted to you.
This sounds simple until you try it.
The moment you start saying no, you discover how many people have grown accustomed to your yes.
You also discover how much of your identity has been wrapped up in being the person who always shows up. It is humbling to realize that your desire to serve has been tangled up with your desire to be seen as helpful. It is even more humbling to realize that God never asked you to be the hero of every story.
In my time, I have volunteered on a community cable access board, online for app tech support and with a nonprofit youth soccer organization. In both instances I stepped out of my comfort zone and into a space where my talents in technology and leadership could be placed into broader use, not for my own reward.
Serving well requires honesty.
You have to know your limits.
You have to know your job’s expectations.
You have to know how much emotional energy you have left after a long week.
You have to know when your body is asking for rest.
You have to know when your family needs you more than the committee does.
You have to know when your yes would be sincere and when it would be a performance.
There is a kind of holiness in that honesty. It is the holiness of not pretending to be limitless and remembering that you are a human being with a nervous system, not a machine that can run indefinitely. Trusting that God can raise up other volunteers and that the world does not collapse when you step back.
Once I started paying attention to what was actually mine to carry, volunteering became lighter.
I discovered that service does not have to be dramatic to be meaningful.
Sometimes it looks like:
sending an encouraging email to someone who is struggling.
stacking chairs after an event.
serving on a board because you genuinely care about the mission and not because you felt cornered into it. S
helping online because your schedule does not allow you to show up in person.
choosing one thing and doing it well instead of choosing ten things and doing them all with a faint sense of resentment.
I also learned that serving with integrity means honoring the people who pay you. If your employer trusts you with your time, your energy, and your attention, then volunteering should never become a secret second job that steals from the first.
There is a quiet kind of faithfulness in doing your actual work well before you go looking for more work to do elsewhere.
The surprising thing is that when you serve within your limits, you actually have more to give. You show up with a clearer mind and a steadier heart. You show up without the simmering exhaustion that makes you question every life choice you have ever made. You show up with joy instead of obligation. You show up with the kind of presence that makes your service feel like a gift instead of a burden. You. Show. Up.
The rewards of serving this way are subtle but real.
You start to notice the people you are helping instead of rushing past them.
You start to feel connected to the mission instead of overwhelmed by it.
You start to sense God’s presence in the small moments instead of waiting for the big ones. and
You start to sleep better because your yes is honest and your no is grounded.
Serving without burning out is not about doing less. It is about doing what is yours to do with a full heart and a rested body.
It is about trusting that God is not asking you to save the world. God is asking you to be faithful in the small corner you inhabit. God is asking you to show up with sincerity, not exhaustion. God is asking you to serve in ways that bring life, not depletion.
If you are learning this too, welcome. You are in good company. The world needs your gifts, but it does not need you to disappear in the process. Say yes when it is yours to carry. Say no when it is not. And sleep well knowing that faithfulness is not measured by how much you do, but by how honestly you do it.
As You Find Me (AYFM) is where Brad Hachez - a visionary neurodivergent creator - explores tech, faith, health, & life. Join the journey to streamline productivity, deepen relationships, & reflect on purpose with resilience, presence, and servant-hearted growth.