Here’s a little bit of help our ministry gives people who come to us for an intensive 2-day retreat. Maybe you could do it over a longer period, and share with your spiritual director / soul friend..
1. Do a time-line of your life, noting ‘highs’ and ‘lows’ (however you like to define them). Graph the highest and lowest and put rough dates against these, noting your feelings then and now about these events/experiences. Why were/are they significant?
2. On separate pages, write the following headings and make some notes on your experiences in each: Anxiety/Fear, Sadness/Grief, Guilt (bad things I have done)/Shame (bad things I feel about me), Irritation/Anger.
3. What problems/challenges do each of the ‘seven deadly sins’ hold for you? (Sloth, Lust, Anger, Pride, Envy, Gluttony, Greed). What are your ‘addictions’?
4. We each have a ‘shadow’ side (Jung). What is yours? Where are your areas of incompleteness? For what non-altruistic reasons are you in ministry or doing good?
5. Of the three great temptations – money, sex, power – where are you weakest? Why? What are you tempted to do/be/think if you were sure you wouldn’t be found out in this life?
6. Be Peter in the story in Mark 6 and/or the woman in Mark 5:24-34. How do you feel?
7. What dreams do you recall? What do they tell you about yourself?
8. What ‘spiritual gifts’ has God given you? What have you done with them?
9. If the relevant resources (money, people, authority etc.) were plentiful enough, what would you like most to do with your life?
10. What happens when you pray?
11. Write a paragraph about each of these: God, Jesus for me, faith, love, hope, the Bible, the Church, authority-figures, being a woman/man, being a parent, being a child, being a partner, counseling / being counseled, work, church, hobbies /interests…
12. What books and/or movies, great works of art etc. have most influenced you? What are your favourite Bible passages/texts? Why?
13. What do you like / what don’t you like about the way you were brought up?
14. Write some notes about friendships. What do you enjoy? Do you have sufficient friends? What do you do with them? Are there limits to what you can disclose to them?
15. Physical/emotional/mental health: where could you improve? How’s your diet, exercise, rest/sabbath/sleep and thinking habits? If there were some things you’d like to change about yourself what would they be?
16. How do you feel about the future?
17. If you died today, write down in one page what your eulogy might look like (be honest!).
18. Write in a page or so what you think you will hear at the Great Judgment!
19. List anything else of significance in your life that you’d like to think/pray/talk about…
More on JMM retreats.
Shalom!
Rowland Croucher
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