Summertime is a great opportunity for the important exercise of ‘spiritual recalibration’. If you can escape to the mountains or to a cabin by a lake to initiate this exercise, that’s great. If locations like that are not options for you, find a quiet place in a café, or in a park or go for a drive on some rural roads. Just find a place to be alone with your thoughts and with God.
Start by thinking about where you are in your life. It is often helpful to write your thoughts down. Write responses to questions you ask yourself, like:
Ø What’s been happening in your life and in your heart lately?
Ø How have you been responding to life circumstances beyond your control?
Ø How have you been handling temptation that has come your way recently?
Ø How have you been doing at cherishing your spouse or appreciating family members and friends?
Writing your responses will help in the honest process of ‘reflection’ and evaluation and will help to identify specific areas where you need a spiritual tune-up.
When I think of the term ‘spiritual recalibration’ I think of words and phrases like:
Ø Getting back on track.
Ø Re-connecting with bible engagement.
Ø Stopping activity to be able to listen to the whispers of the Holy Spirit better.
Ø Letting go of the pursuit of material things.
Ø Committing to lower the RPMs of the frenetic pace of life.
Ø Embracing a mindset that fosters God’s peace in heart and mind.
That list is only the tip of the iceberg. In fact, there can sometimes be so many aspects of our lives that we need to address, assess, and adjust, that it can become overwhelming to the point that we back away from engaging in the process at all. I encourage you to not let that happen by simply choosing one aspect of your life to focus on over this summertime of reflection and recalibration.
Create an action plan to address just one of the areas that you have allowed to ‘drift’ off course. The action plan should be:
1. Clear – identify the issue/problem and describe, in one sentence, what you know God would want for that aspect of your life.
2. Simple – select one or two ‘do-able’ steps to help you create new habits.
3. Commit this process to God in prayer and ask for His guidance and help.
4. Share all this with a trusted Christian friend and ask them to check in with you – possibly once through the summer to see how the reflective/evaluation process is going and once or twice (or more) in future months to see how you are doing with your action steps.
If you’re willing to intentionally carve out time, this summer can be an excellent experience of taking time to reflect on who you’re becoming and on who you want to be, in Christ. Have fun as you gain God’s perspective of your life in the process of realignment to His purposes and plans for you, as His child. That’s both restorative and transformative.
Romans 8:29 (NIV): “For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son…”