A touch of fall this morning in Western PA - waking up to temperatures in the high 40’s. Most youth ministries have ramped up a new season - the fall kickoff has taken place (even though the Autumnal Equinox is still more than a week away). Yet this is that time for new school years, new fiscal years and new seasonal calendars bringing increased activity, more rigorous schedules and new hopes, goals and expectations.

We need to guard against being carried away by the flurry of activity. We need to be wary of becoming focused on all that we are doing. Just as an engine needs a periodic check-up and rest from being run at full RPM’s, and words only make sense with end marks and punctuation - our lives become absurd when they unravel to become merely a flurry of activity. As we “ramp up” the fall season it is important for us to also put time in our calendars for rest, reflection and unhurried time with family, friends and God. It is interesting that Jesus seemed to follow this pattern - a pattern of intense ministry/activity followed by time withdrawn in solitude or pulled away from the crowds with the twelve.

In my own life, I need to take this advice. It is so easy for the calendar to fill up with an abundance of activity and appointments. In the midst of this I need to allow some days to have no ink, and other dates need to be in red saying things like - rest, retreat, and accountability.

Gordon MacDonald suggested in his book Rebuilding Your Broken World that we need to submit ourselves to a spiritual friend and periodically “check the gauges” of our lives by answering some or all of the following questions. It is crucial that we have a spiritual check up and when better than at the beginning or in the midst of the fall season. Let these questions provide a fresh perspective to the activity, priorities and relationships you invest in during this season.

1. How is your relationship with God right now?
2. What have you read in the Bible this past week or month?
3. Where do you find yourself resisting God these days?
4. What specific things are you praying for and who are you praying for?
5. What tasks/projects are you facing right now that you consider incomplete?
6. What habits intimidate you?
7. What are you reading?
8. How are you engaging in play?
9. How are your immediate relationships with family (nuclear and extended)?
10. If a person were to ask the person closest to you about the state of your mind, spirit and energy level, how would they respond?
11. Are you sensing any spiritual attacks from the enemy right now?
12. What is the state of your sexual perspective? Tempted? Fantasies? Entertainment?
13. Where are you financially right now?
14. Are there any unresolved conflicts in your circle of relationships?
15. When was the last time you spent unhurried time with a good friend of your own gender?
16. What kind of time have you spent with someone who is a non-Christian?
17. What challenges do you think you’re going to face in the coming weeks?
18. What would you say are your fears at this time?
19. Are you sleeping well?
20. What are you most thankful for?
21. Do you like yourself at this point in your pilgrimage?
22. What are your greatest confusions about your relationship with God?

Well, there is a lot there. I hope that some of these questions might help us as we check in with ourselves amidst a busy time of year. I hope you will schedule a time with a good friend to be honest about what is happening in and through us. I hope you will follow a pattern of advance and retreat, doing and being, activity and rest.