When the Yoke Feels Heavy: Rediscovering the With-God Life in Seasons of Transition
Introduction: When Faithfulness Feels Like Exhaustion
There is a quiet crisis among leaders who have given their lives to meaningful work. Pastors. Nonprofit executives. Founders. Marketplace leaders who carry deep conviction about their calling. They are not walking away because they stopped believing. They are walking away because something inside has grown heavy.
They feel responsible for outcomes. Responsible for people. Responsible for sustaining momentum. And over time, the work that once felt sacred begins to feel suffocating.
Jesus said, “My yoke is easy and my burden is light” (Matthew 11:30). Yet many faithful leaders would privately admit that their yoke feels neither easy nor light. It feels crushing.
What happened?
Often, without realizing it, we shift from living with God to living for God.
And that subtle shift changes everything.
The Posture Beneath the Work
There are many ways to posture ourselves toward God.
We can live under God, believing obedience guarantees blessing.
We can live over God, mastering principles and assuming control.
We can live from God, focusing primarily on what He provides.
We can live for God, centering our identity around service.
Each posture contains partial truth. Each can be fueled by sincerity. But when any of them replaces relationship, something fractures.
Living for God feels noble. It fuels productivity. It builds institutions. It sustains long hours and sacrificial decisions. But over time, it can become subtly transactional. If I do enough, lead well enough, preach well enough, build well enough—then I matter.
The work becomes intertwined with identity.
And when transition threatens the work, it threatens the self.
Why Transitions Feel So Disorienting
Leadership transitions are rarely just strategic. They are spiritual and emotional earthquakes.
When a role ends—whether by choice, calling, conflict, or circumstance—it exposes the deeper question: Who am I without this platform?
If identity has fused with output, transition feels like death. If worth has fused with visibility, stepping away feels like erasure. If calling has fused with one organization, leaving feels like betrayal.
But Scripture tells a different story.
Psalm 139 reminds us that there is nowhere we can go from God’s presence. Not a new city. Not a new industry. Not retirement. Not obscurity. He is there.
The constancy of His presence dismantles the myth that ministry exists only within certain walls.
Work changes. Titles change. Influence shifts. But the invitation to walk with Him remains unchanged.
Work as Formation, Not Just Production
We spend most of our waking hours at work. More than at church. More than in explicitly spiritual environments.
If God is forming us, shaping us, refining us—why would He avoid the place we spend the most time?
Work is not merely a platform for impact. It is a classroom for the soul.
Deadlines reveal anxiety.
Conflict exposes pride.
Success uncovers hidden dependence on applause.
Failure reveals where we were leaning on ourselves.
When we treat work as something we do for God, we miss how God is using work to shape us.
But when we bring Him into the daily decisions, the hard conversations, the strategic planning sessions—work becomes shared space. It becomes ground for transformation.
The Burnout Beneath Burnout
Burnout is rarely about workload alone.
It is often about carrying responsibility without companionship.
When leaders operate from a “for God” posture, they unconsciously assume the burden is theirs to carry. God is the recipient of their effort, not the co-laborer in it.
But Jesus’ imagery of a yoke is not solitary. A yoke connects two oxen. He is not asking us to pull harder. He is inviting us to pull with Him.
When that companionship is neglected, the work grows heavy.
And when it grows heavy long enough, leaders collapse—or walk away.
The tragedy is not the transition itself. Transitions are natural. The tragedy is believing that leaving a role means leaving ministry.
Ministry is not confined to pulpits or nonprofit payrolls. It is the overflow of walking with God into every environment we inhabit.
Discernment Without Panic
One of the most destabilizing aspects of transition is the fear of making the wrong decision.
Is this God’s will?
Is there one perfect path?
What if I miss it?
This anxiety assumes that God’s guidance is a tightrope suspended over disaster.
But discernment is not about discovering a singular correct option hidden among landmines. It is about cultivating a relationship attentive enough to walk wisely.
Proverbs 3:5–6 does not promise GPS-level specificity. It promises direction as we trust and acknowledge Him.
There may be multiple good paths forward. The peace comes not from eliminating options but from walking whichever road we choose with Him.
Succession as Stewardship, Not Failure
For many leaders, succession feels like surrender.
Yet healthy succession is stewardship.
It recognizes that organizations, churches, and companies outlast individual leaders. It honors the truth that leadership is temporary but faithfulness is ongoing.
Even Jesus entrusted His work to others and ascended. The early church did not collapse because He left; it expanded.
Stepping aside is not stepping out of ministry. It is shifting how ministry is expressed.
Mentoring. Advising. Serving quietly. Building businesses. Investing in family. None of these are lesser callings.
They are different assignments within the same overarching invitation: walk with Me.
The Courage to Slow Down
Perhaps the hardest discipline in transition is slowing down long enough to listen.
In anxiety, we rush to secure income. To prove relevance. To demonstrate resilience. To show we are still valuable.
But sometimes the most faithful step is not immediate action but attentive presence.
Elijah encountered God not in wind, earthquake, or fire—but in a whisper (1 Kings 19:12).
Whispers require quiet.
And quiet can feel threatening to leaders accustomed to constant motion.
Yet within that quiet, the deeper identity is clarified. Not what you produce. Not who you lead. But whose you are.
The Lifelong Nature of Sanctification
Spiritual growth is not a five-year sprint after conversion. It is lifelong.
The longer we walk with God, the deeper He goes. Into motives. Into hidden fears. Into identity structures we did not realize were unstable.
This can make the journey feel harder over time, not easier.
But hardness is not absence. It is invitation.
When anxiety surfaces in transition, it is not evidence of God’s distance. It may be evidence that He is pressing into a deeper layer of trust.
And trust grows not through information alone, but through shared experience.
An Invitation, Not an Achievement
The with-God life is not another metric to achieve.
It is an awareness to cultivate.
It is asking in the middle of strategic planning, “Lord, what are You forming here?”
In the middle of conflict, “What are You revealing in me?”
In the middle of uncertainty, “How do I walk this road with You?”
It is less about adding spiritual tasks and more about inviting spiritual awareness.
And slowly, almost imperceptibly, the yoke grows lighter.
Not because the work disappears.
But because we are no longer carrying it alone.
Conclusion: Protecting the Heart in Transition
If you are navigating transition right now, resist the temptation to reduce it to logistics.
Yes, update the résumé.
Yes, plan wisely.
Yes, steward finances.
But also ask the deeper question:
Where is God knocking?
He stands at the door. Not once. Not in the past. Now.
Transitions do not end ministry. They refine it. They relocate it. They purify the motives beneath it.
And in that refining, there is peace available. Freedom available. A lighter burden available.
The invitation is simple and lifelong:
Walk with Him.
If you want to explore this theme further, listen to the latest episode of the Life After Ministry podcast. It’s a companion conversation for leaders discerning what’s next.
Matt Davis served as a Teaching and Executive Pastor for more than two decades in Orange County, California. After going through his own pastoral transition out of ministry, Matt learned the difficulty of this season. He helped start Ministry Transitions, a ministry committed to helping ministry leaders navigate transitions with grace. As President, he seeks to bring healing a reconciliation to churches and their people.
