Fruitfulness Without Burnout: Learning from the Rhythms of Nature

Blog by Gem Fadling

Awhile back, a young woman shared a response to something I had recently taught. She believed that if she let go of a particular opportunity, it was a kind of surrendering or giving up. To her, it meant she couldn’t cut it and had to reduce what she thought was good productivity.

However, she was in the middle of a shift in thinking. She was beginning to see that letting go was not the same as giving up. Instead, it meant recognizing what was truly hers to do, and what was not, then choosing accordingly. When I mentioned the word “agency,” she immediately said, “Exactly!”

There is a beautiful dynamic here. When we begin to examine the assumptions driving our activity, letting go can feel like giving up or resigning ourselves to less.

But what is really happening is discernment and an honest evaluation of our desires and limitations. Then we become capable of being guided by the Holy Spirit into self-control by making decisions that truly serve us and those around us.

Agency is a great thing. You get to determine what you can and cannot handle. This relieves us from living under pressure of performance for performance’s sake. The productivity wheel is always spinning, but we don’t have to take that ride.

I want to bear the good fruit of loving God and loving others. And I cannot do that if I’m spinning around at the mercy of other people’s expectations and my own drive to find my value in anything outside myself.

Many fruit-bearing trees have true seasons of dormancy in the winter. That winter rest does a few important things: 

• Resets the tree’s internal clock
• Allows energy storage
• Prepares buds to form properly in spring

Without that rest, many of these trees: 

• Won’t flower well
• Won’t fruit reliably
• Can become stressed or unhealthy

But there are some fruit trees that do produce, in a way, all year long. Yet even the trees that seem to carry fruit all year aren’t producing at a constant pace.

For example, a citrus tree can hold blossoms, tiny green fruit, and ripe fruit all at the same time, which makes it look like it never stops producing. But that’s just what is visible to our eyes. Beneath the surface, the tree is living in rhythms. It has some stretches where fruit is obvious and plentiful, and other stretches where the work is quieter, slower, almost hidden.

The tree is never striving to stay “on.” It’s simply living its cycle, receiving what it needs, developing what’s been given, and then offering fruit when it’s ready. That’s where its steadiness comes from: not constant output, but a faithful rhythm it doesn’t try to override.

But even such seemingly year-round trees: 

• Have natural rhythms (peaks and slower seasons)
• Still respond to temperature, water, and light cycles
• Are not truly producing at maximum output every single day

So what appears as year-round fruit is actually intermittent and cyclical, not constant and uniform.

This is the wisdom that young woman had discerned. She could move into a slower season that didn’t look like the same maximum output from before, AND she could still be a fruitful (productive) person who is deeply valued even when she is generating “less.”

If we’re honest, many of us could cut our activities in half and still be quite busy. Just because we can add more doesn’t mean we should.

Doesn’t it sound more inviting to slow your roll a bit so that you have some inner reserves to enjoy your family and friends just a little more? You can live without rush and without pressure to move on to the next thing or to keep multiple plates spinning.

If the crazy world culture is teaching us nothing else, might we let it inspire us to dial things back, enjoy some simple pleasures, and be content with what we have and who we are?

My own need for more has become a burden too great for me to bear. I’m wondering if you might be feeling the same. Many leaders I speak with are exhausted or stressed or overwhelmed. Some are on the verge of burnout.

I believe we have the agency to stop this cycle in our own lives, and we can begin by acknowledging we’re on a treadmill and we don’t know how to step off.

Don’t remain trapped by the productivity cycle. If you have time to watch Netflix and scroll social media, you have time to ponder the pace and fullness of your life. This isn’t a statement of judgment. It’s a statement of perspective.

In our PACE cohorts, we encourage leaders to journey at the pace of grace, the pace of transformation. And, ultimately, at the pace of Jesus.

One of the striking things about Jesus’s teaching is how grounded it is in the things of ordinary life: seeds, birds, weather, vineyards, sheep, bread, water, trees. Here are some memorable nature-based phrases and images from his teaching:

• “Consider the lilies of the field” (Matthew 6:28)—flowers as a picture of trust and God’s care.
• “Look at the birds of the air” (Matthew 6:26)—birds as an example of freedom from anxious striving.
• “I am the vine, you are the branches” (John 15)—life flowing from connection and abiding.
• “A sower went out to sow” (Matthew 13)—seeds and soil representing the condition of the heart.
• “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed” (Matthew 13:31)—small beginnings becoming something expansive.
• “Every good tree bears good fruit” (Matthew 7:17)—inward health revealed outwardly.
• “The rain fell, the floods came, and the winds blew” (Matthew 7:27)—hardship as a revealing force.
• “Streams of living water will flow from within” (John 7:38)—Spirit-filled abundance overflowing outward.

Jesus taught as though creation itself already speaks about the kingdom of God. And it does.

You are an organic being, lovingly created by a nurturing God. I encourage you to enjoy that more often. Breathe in the grace being offered. You are so much more than what you do, what you have, and what others say about you.

You are the beloved. Undeniably and without qualification. There is nothing that can come between you and God’s love. My prayer is that you will encounter God this week in a way that makes this more real for you.

For Reflection: 

• What strikes you about the pattern of the year-round trees?
• Which aspect of nature from the passages above inspires you the most right now?
• What is Jesus inviting you to today?

Gem Fadling is a founding partner of Unhurried Living, Inc., a non-profit that trains people to rest deeper, live fuller and lead better. She is a trained Spiritual Director and a Certified Life Coach who trains people at the intersection of spiritual leadership and soul care. She co-leads PACE, a two-year leadership formation journey that helps leaders live and lead from spiritual depth rather than depletion. Gem is the co-host of the Unhurried Living Podcast as well as the author of Hold That Thought and co-author of What Does Your Soul Love? Her work has appeared in Propel Women and Our Daily Bread. To connect with Gem and find resources for soul care and leadership, visit unhurriedliving.com or find her on Instagram and LinkedIn.