No Small Endeavor with Lee C. Camp 261: Tish Harrison Warren: Your Burnout May Be An Invitation to a Meaningful Life
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May 11, 2026 
Tish Harrison Warren, an Anglican priest and author of What Grows in Weary Lands, reflects on leaving the NYT and studying early Christian desert wisdom. She explores burnout as an invitation, the value of arduous, rooted practices, faith as daily craft, and embracing limits, Sabbath, and local acts of love. Short, thoughtful, and unexpectedly practical.
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Leaving The New York Times Sparked The Book
- Tish Harrison Warren left her New York Times column after intense public controversy and threats drained her energy.
- Writing a new book emerged when relationships, prayer, and previously life-giving practices began feeling empty and arduous, prompting a two-year inquiry into burnout.
Desert Practitioners As Early Soul Scientists
- The Desert Fathers and Mothers practiced solitude and repetitive rhythms to cultivate depth and honesty about human struggles like boredom and spiritual dryness.
- Their writings treat weariness, doubt, and temptation as internal realities to be examined, not escaped, making them early psychologists of the soul.
Arduous Spirituality Beats Instant Fixes
- Revivalist and consumerist strands in American faith emphasize ecstatic experience and easy fixes, which undermines patience and fortitude.
- The desert tradition instead prizes patience and staying put to root out internal temptations that follow you wherever you flee.
