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Ep. 20 - How to Work Hard Without Destroying Your Soul
14 Plays5 days ago
In this episode, Ken Freire unpacks the tension many young professionals feel between “work really hard” and “trust God”—and why that tension often produces anxiety, guilt, and burnout. Ken exposes the lie that “if I want something accomplished, I have to do it on my own,” then replaces it with a healthier, biblical operating system: grace-driven effort—working from acceptance, fueled by security and trust, instead of working for acceptance, fueled by fear.
Resources Mentioned
- D.A. Carson — concept referenced: “grace-driven effort”
- Bible passages referenced:
Ephesians 2
Philippians 2
2 Peter 1
Tower of Babel (Genesis 11)
Timestamps
- 00:01–01:34 — Series context + the tension: Working hard vs. trusting God, and the fear of either striving too much or being lazy
- 01:35–03:57 — The lie beneath burnout: “If I don’t push myself, nothing will happen” + the drivers (falling behind, comparison, proving worth)
- 03:58–06:10 — The replacement operating system: Introducing grace-driven effort; grace as enabling power; working from acceptance
- 06:11–07:54 — The pivot in real time: Moving from “What can I do to fix this?” to “God, how do you want me to address this?”
- 07:55–09:57 — Resiliency comes from humility + dependence: Human effort can go far, but pride collapses; resilient mindset grows through relying on God’s strength
- 09:58–10:33 — Close + activation reminder: Growth isn’t intensity; it’s being rooted in Christ and walking in the grace already given
Recommended
Transcript
Intro
Introduction to Bury Talent
00:00:09
Ken Freire
Welcome to Bury Talent, the show for young professionals that tears down false beliefs about faith and work so you can unbury your God-given talent right where you are.
Can you work hard without losing your soul?
00:00:18
Ken Freire
I'm Ken Freire, and today we're talking about how to work hard without destroying your soul.
00:00:23
Ken Freire
Now, if you've been following us, we're doing a two-part series on how to grow a resilient mindset. Last time we talked about how your identity is the foundation to having a resilient mindset.
00:00:34
Ken Freire
And you may be wondering, like, why are we talking about this topic, resilient
The Conflict: Trusting God vs. Personal Effort
00:00:38
Ken Freire
mindset? And it's because for young professionals, there are going to be lot of external and internal circumstances that are going to happen to you that if you don't know how to manage them and handle them well, you're going to collapse, you're going to fail.
00:00:53
Ken Freire
And today, that's what we want to talk about is effort. You see, most of us have this false belief that we're taught two things that don't seem to go together. It's work really hard and you feel like you have to work and everything's decided by you. Like whatever you do, grind, push, strive.
00:01:15
Ken Freire
But then at the other side of the coin is like, you're like, trust God and trust God really well. And if you're doing it all on your own strength,
Emotional Consequences of False Beliefs
00:01:22
Ken Freire
you're not trusting God. And you're like, they don't seem to connect.
00:01:26
Ken Freire
And along the way of both of these extremes, or not extremes, but truths of like work hard and trust God, in the middle somewhere, you also have to make sure you don't strive too much. You don't burn out, but you also don't be lazy.
00:01:42
Ken Freire
So the confusion that comes because of this is that if you push hard or too hard, you feel guilty. If you rest, you feel behind.
00:01:54
Ken Freire
So there's this quiet tension of anxiety that comes up. And the reality is that the problem isn't effort. It's the kind of effort you're using.
00:02:07
Ken Freire
And that's where this false belief starts to come in. That if I want something accomplished, I have to do this on my own.
Personal Experience of Burnout
00:02:17
Ken Freire
Or if I don't push myself, nothing will happen.
00:02:22
Ken Freire
And the reason you feel this false belief is because there's this thing where you feel like there's fear of falling behind or you're comparing yourself with others, right? Because you're thinking, well, nothing will happen or nothing will get done or, oh man, they're going to get ahead of me. It's just a comparison game.
00:02:43
Ken Freire
Or the last one, which if I'm honest, this one was something I struggled with for a long time. And if I don't keep it in check, it could rear its ugly head. And that's needing to prove my worth or competence.
00:02:56
Ken Freire
So because of those things, what ends up happening is if you have these emotions and fears hiding behind this lie or this false belief of you have to push yourself or nothing will happen,
00:03:11
Ken Freire
Well, if you don't deal with these fears, you're just going to keep grinding and pushing. I think this is part of the reason why walked in and burnt out a few years ago, because everything was always about me trying to prove myself.
00:03:25
Ken Freire
So I had to actually pause and say, you know what, this is costing me something.
Human Effort vs. Grace-Driven Effort
00:03:32
Ken Freire
And the reality is that this type of effort that we try really hard to either prove ourselves because of our worth or comparing ourselves or not feeling like you're falling behind, it looks like faithfulness, but actually disconnects us.
00:03:48
Ken Freire
Because we start to lose our joy, our peace, our trust. We start to forget what we're actually going to do and how we're supposed to do it. And this is what actually ends up leading to burnout.
00:04:00
Ken Freire
You're doing everything from a place of fear versus a place of peace and joy and trust. So how do replace this lie? How do we switch and turn the corner and say, God, I need you and I need a different operating system than what I'm walking in today.
00:04:19
Ken Freire
So this is you, if you feel like this is the way you struggle and you have this tension in your own heart, man, take the next five minutes because I think this is going to bless you immensely.
00:04:31
Ken Freire
So the first thing that you need to do is replace this lie of having to do it in your own strength with a better operating system, which I believe DA Carson was the one who coined it, where he talks about grace-driven effort.
00:04:46
Ken Freire
And what do I mean by grace-driven effort? Grace doesn't make you passive. I think many times when we think about grace, we think about God's grace to us, right? He gives us, so we're like, we just receive it, right? It's not anything that we do in our own merit, like it says in Ephesians chapter two, right? It's by grace that you have been saved, not by works. So when you think about that, you're just like, oh, okay.
00:05:10
Ken Freire
Many times we look at grace as a passive thing, but grace actually, right? It is something, an unmerited favor that he gives us, but it also is an enabling power that he gives us so that we can do what he's called us to do.
00:05:25
Ken Freire
Like it says in Philippians 2, right? It God who wills us to do his good works, right? That's why it says, do these things with fear and trembling. Well, it's not because you're afraid,
00:05:36
Ken Freire
But it's because in such awe of His majesty, of His glory, that He would give you that kind of power to will you to do what's good and godly and doing it without burning out.
00:05:49
Ken Freire
So we have to switch our mindsets from doing everything from human effort, which is work for your acceptance or fueled by anxiety and fear, and switch it to grace-driven effort where you're working from acceptance.
00:06:05
Ken Freire
and you're fueled by security and trust.
Identity and Grace in Resilience
00:06:08
Ken Freire
See, grace-driven effort is, and this is why identity was talked about first and foremost, is because grace-driven effort, right, is coming from a place of, because you know your identity and who you are in Christ, you could take all of that energy that you have and say, God, I'm going work to glorify you as best as possible. I know you're going to give me the strength. I know you're going to give me the power.
00:06:31
Ken Freire
And you may not feel at the moment. I think many times we walk in such a way that we have to feel something, like we have to feel motivated or feel energized. But that's not the case. It's saying, hey, Father, I know what's best for me. know what the Word of God says should do in these moments. And because of that, I know you're going to give me the grace to actually live everything the way you want me to do.
00:06:56
Ken Freire
It says it in 2 Peter 1 where he says, he gives us everything that pertains to life and godliness. He's given you everything that pertains to life and godliness.
00:07:08
Ken Freire
That includes your work. That includes how you work. That includes what type of excellence you're supposed to bring to the table. But what we do is that we forget that he's given us this grace, he's given us the ability to do this, and we run towards, how do I solve this? I'll give you a great example. This happens to me so many more times than I could care to admit.
00:07:31
Ken Freire
But whenever problem comes up, I look at it and I say, my gosh, what can I do to fix this situation? And what grace-driven effort would actually say is you stop for a moment and you say, God, how do you want me to fix this? What do you want to do in this situation?
00:07:52
Ken Freire
And instead of it being about you, it becomes about God working through you. And that small little pivot is the change that you need. And again, what does this have to do with resilient mindset?
00:08:04
Ken Freire
And it's actually quite simple. It's that the reality is when you start to think about everything that happens in this world and every problem that you're trying to fix, it can be so exhausting for you to just be like, oh my gosh, I have to fix this. I have to do this. I have to work on myself. I, And your effort can only go so far.
00:08:27
Ken Freire
Now, you may listen to people like David Goggins or the next Navy SEAL out there that decides to write a book. And they're like, you got that. It's all on your mindset and you got to do everything with your own power.
00:08:38
Ken Freire
And guess what? Humans can do a lot without God's help. We have the Tower of Babel where they're like, hey, we're going to grow this massive building to the heavens to show how great we are. And God dismantled it. God gives grace to the humble, but he opposes the proud.
00:08:56
Ken Freire
So you have to think about it in that sense of like, yes, us humans can do But sooner or later, you're going to fall. Sooner or later, you won't be able to do the things that God's called you to do if you're doing it in your own effort. Sooner or later,
Relying on God for Strength and Resilience
00:09:11
Ken Freire
you're going to be opposed by God because you're doing it in your own strength, thinking that you're proud enough and capable enough to do it. And God says, no, no, no. sooner or later you need god's strength to lift you up to bring you into glory and also during this life that life to say god i humbly accept where i'm at and i need your strength when you start to shift and say god i need your strength moment by moment you actually start to grow a true godly resilient mindset because it's not about your effort now it's about what god can provide for you so
00:09:51
Ken Freire
Growth isn't about intensity or temperament. It's about resiliency being formed in you. And you don't become resilient by trying harder. You become resilient by being rooted in Christ.
00:10:06
Ken Freire
So I want you to consistently be thinking about this. Don't try muster up strength. It's not about that. A lot of the actions are going to be very similar that you do, but it just becomes the motivation of what you're trying to accomplish.
00:10:22
Ken Freire
So you don't need to become someone else. You just need to remember the grace that God has given you and walk in that grace. Hope you guys have a great day and God bless.