Walking Through Burnout: Lessons from the Road to Emmaus
- Bobby Jakucs, Psy.D.
- Aug 16
- 7 min read
As they came near the village to which they were going, he walked ahead as if he were going on. But they urged him strongly, saying, "Stay with us, because it is almost evening and the day is now nearly over." So he went in to stay with them. - Luke 24: 28-29
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Burnout doesn’t just drain our energy — it can quietly erode our sense of purpose. It’s more than tiredness; it’s a creeping disconnection from the “why” that once fueled us. In Luke’s Gospel (24:13–35), two disciples walk the road to Emmaus “with downcast faces.” What they believed about Jesus’ mission had collapsed. Everything they had come to believe - their purpose, their mission and the way things were "supposed to go" - was shattered. They were confused, disillusioned, and ready to turn back.
Note: This post is adapted from a keynote I was blessed to give to a dedicated group of teachers — who, like so many of us, know a thing or two about burnout. It has been condensed and reformatted here for a wider audience
That scene captures the heart of burnout: when the meaning we’ve been walking toward suddenly feels out of reach, and the temptation is to stop walking altogether. Yet Emmaus also offers a path forward — one that aligns with the wisdom of Catholic spirituality and the practical tools of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT).
What Burnout Really Is
Many approaches treat burnout like a scheduling issue: just work less, take a vacation, or "do more self-care." But burnout is more than a calendar problem. The deeper reality is that burnout is often exhaustion plus meaning fatigue — the sense that what you’re doing no longer matters (Reithof & Bob, 2019).
Viktor Frankl, Holocaust survivor and psychiatrist, observed:
“What man actually needs is not a tensionless state but rather the striving and struggling for a worthwhile goal… the call of a potential meaning waiting to be fulfilled by him.” (Man’s Search for Meaning)
You can work long, difficult hours and still feel alive if you are anchored in something worth the effort. But when our mind starts whispering things like “This doesn’t matter”, even small challenges can feel crushing.
ACT helps us see these moments not as failures but as signs that we’ve lost touch with our values — the life directions that give our actions significance.
ACT Principles That Help
ACT doesn’t try to erase difficult thoughts and emotions. Instead, it teaches us to relate to them differently, so they don’t drive the bus of our lives.
1. Defusion
In burnout, thoughts like "I'm not making a difference" or "I can't keep going" can feel fused to your identity. Instead, ACT teaches us to step back: notice thoughts without letting them define you. Instead of “I am burned out,” try “I’m noticing the thought that I’m burned out.” That small shift opens space to act from values rather than from emotion.
2. Acceptance
Rather than fighting fatigue, fear, or frustration we can make space for them and still move toward what matters. We can stop the exhausting fight against discomfort and make space for these feelings without letting them dictate our choices. As Marcus Aurelius wrote in Meditations:
“The impediment to action advances action. What stands in the way becomes the way.”
3. Values Alignment
Reconnect with your “why.” Feelings of burnout often signal we've drifted from our values. When you remember the sacredness of your work, even mundane tasks become part of something larger. (If you want to dive deeper into this concept check out my post What If Everything We Do Matters?)
4. Committed Action
Keep walking toward what matters even in doubt, even if the road is uphill. Kipling put it this way:
“If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster, and treat those two impostors just the same…”
One of ACT’s best-known metaphors is the “passengers on the bus.” Your thoughts and emotions are those passengers — some quiet, some loud, some insisting you take a different route. Your job is to keep the bus on the road that aligns with your values. You don’t have to kick anyone off, and you certainly don’t hand them the wheel. You notice them there but you keep driving your route toward your purpose.
The Road to Emmaus as a Map
In Luke’s account, Jesus doesn’t break into the scene with trumpets. He simply walks with the disciples, listening to their confusion before helping them see the bigger story. Only then do they recognize Him — and discover that their hearts had been burning all along.
That sequence matters. Presence comes before passion. Sometimes we need to move further on the road - further into the unknown - before we feel a change of heart.
Sometimes God’s first gift is not clarity but companionship. In the moment, we may not feel His presence — yet He is beside us in the quiet encouragement of a friend, in the patience of a loved one, in the inner nudge to just keep going.
As Cormac McCarthy’s The Road reminds us, even in bleakness we are called to “carry the fire” — the light of goodness, love, and humanity — for the sake of others. You carry that fire in your work, your family, your community, even on days you can’t feel the warmth yourself.
Father Jaques Phillipe in Searching for and Maintaining Peace reminds us that the present moment - exactly where we are - is where God meets us. The Emmaus story shows us that confusion is not the absence of Christ; often it's the very road He walks with us.
I often reflect on the Good Thief, crucified next to Christ. He had likely heard Jesus preach before, perhaps he even met Him. But he'd gone his own way as we so often do. Until He came to the one place his decisions led him and the one place he could no longer run from: the cross.
That's where Christ met him. Thats where he meets us too - in our low points, our shattered plans, our Emmaus walks, and our crosses. When we are stripped of our illusions, sometimes we can receive His presence in a way we couldn't before.
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Meaning in the Messy and Mundane
Meaning doesn’t always arrive in the grand, sweeping moments. In fact, more often, it’s forged in the small and messy moments of our day to day. In the routine of our lives, the actions that go unnoticed.
And other times it is in those very moments when we are in the middle of the struggle. When or mind starts to generate the burnout stories of "I'm overwhelmed", "not now, not one more thing." I remember one night when my young daughter was sick with a stomach bug. I was tired, buried in responsibilities, and my first thought was “Not tonight.” Yet, I stayed up with her in her pain. And as I held her, I realized: this is exactly what a father does. This is what we are made for. This is what love is. Not in some theoretical way. Certainly not as an abstract feeling. But in a very lived way that can only be experienced - it is the love of the Cross.
Frankl once wrote, contemplating his own wife while imprisoned in a concentration camp:
“The salvation of man is through love and in love.” (Man’s Search For Meaning)
Christianity makes this even more explicit — that love has a name, and it is Jesus. In every act of self-giving, even in fatigue, we are drawn into His way of love. And to understand that way of love, you need only look at a crucifix.
Boundaries as Sacred Guardrails
Boundaries are not selfish. They are stewardship.
Jesus Himself withdrew to pray and said “no” to certain requests so He could say “yes” to the Father’s mission. Likewise, our “no” should protect what allows us to give our best to what matters most:
Yes to prayer.
Yes to being present with family.
Yes to serving from abundance rather than emptiness.
Values-based boundaries aren’t about empty space — they’re about filling our lives with what is life-giving and mission-aligned. Why values-based? Because so often that time will be filled by something automatic and reflexive otherwise: binge-watching, doom scrolling and other passive activities that fill time but not vitality.
Practical Ways to Walk Your Emmaus Road
Name your passengers – Identify recurring burnout thoughts. Practice saying, “I’m noticing the thought…” instead of fusing with it.
Reconnect with your why – Who benefits when you live your mission well? Write it down if you need a regular reminder.
Invite Christ to stay – Like the disciples, ask Him to “stay with us” even before you feel the fire.
Take the long view – Consider the 30,000-foot perspective. What might God be shaping through this season?
Anchor boundaries in values – Let your “no” guard your deeper “yes.”
Walking Forward in Faith
Burnout may make you feel the fire has gone out, but Emmaus reminds us: the fire often still burns — even if you can’t feel it yet.
When the road feels long, remember:
You are not alone.
Christ walks with you, unseen but steady.
The road may wind, but it is never wasted.
So keep walking. Keep planting seeds. Keep inviting Christ to remain with you. Because when your eyes are opened — in His timing — you may see He has been beside you all along.
