"Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves."
2 Corinthians 13:5
Around this time of the year, many of us quietly start taking inventory.
We think about the goals we set back in January. The habits we wanted to build. The projects we hoped to finish. Some of them are going well. Others have quietly slipped away. And if we’re not careful, it’s easy to measure the entire year by this one question:
“Am I where I thought I’d be by now?”
Honestly, it’s not a bad question. I just don’t think it’s the most important one.
Near the end of his second letter to the Corinthians, Paul writes, “Examine yourselves.” He isn’t asking them to count accomplishments or evaluate productivity. He’s inviting them to pause and honestly look at the condition of their faith.
That made me wonder how different my own mid-year reflection would look if I asked different questions.
Instead of asking, “How much have I produced?” what if I asked, “Have I remained close to Jesus while producing?”
Instead of asking, “How much has my audience grown?” what if I asked, “Has my love for people grown?”
Instead of asking, “Am I becoming more successful?” what if I asked, “Am I becoming more like Christ?”
Don’t get me wrong. Goals matter. Faithful stewardship matters. Excellence matters. But if we accomplish everything on our vision board while neglecting the quiet work God wants to do in our hearts, we’ve measured the year by the wrong scorecard.
The beautiful thing about the middle of the year is that it isn’t just a checkpoint, or a pitstop, but also an invitation.
An invitation to pause before we keep running to celebrate God’s faithfulness, to notice where we’ve drifted, and to realign our hearts before we realign our calendars.
The year isn’t over, friends. There’s still time to change direction if you need to.
Not because you’ve fallen behind, but because God is always more interested in your formation than your performance.
So before you revisit your to-do list this week, spend a few moments examining something even more important:
Your heart.
🙏 PRAYER:
Father, thank You for walking with me through every season of this year. Help me resist the temptation to measure my life only by what I've accomplished. Search my heart and show me where I've drifted, where I've grown, and where You're inviting me to become more like Jesus. Align my desires with Yours and help me finish this year faithfully, whatever that may look like. In Jesus' name, Amen.
Take fifteen minutes this week for a mid-year heart check.
Instead of reviewing your goals first, answer these four questions in a journal:
Am I closer to Jesus than I was six months ago?
What has God been teaching me this year?
Where have I slowly drifted?
What is one adjustment I sense God inviting me to make before the year continues?
Need more than fifteen minutes? Take a PIT STOP.
This week’s devotional unexpectedly became something bigger.
As I was writing about taking a mid-year pit stop, I found myself wishing there was a practical guide to help us actually pause, reflect, and pray through these questions.
So I spent the last couple of nights creating one.
It’s called PIT STOP—a guided spiritual reset journal for Christian creatives—and my hope is that it becomes something you return to whenever you need to slow down and reconnect with God.
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