Is it me, or is motivation cyclical?  I’ll use the term motivation, but it overlaps with issues of spiritual dryness, struggles with temptation, seasons of spiritual attack and so on.

The One-Week Cycle – Most of us recognize this one.  We build toward Sunday and then crash on Monday.  Some take Monday off.  Others use Monday for brain-dead admin catch-up.  Few preachers I know are at their best emotionally or spiritually on a Monday.

The One-Year Cycle – This is easy to spot too.  Something about January seems to reinvigorate and stir resolutions.  Perhaps December is so busy for you that it takes until February before the new year energy kicks in for you.  Nonetheless, there seems to be an injection of energy at the start of the new year for many of us.

The Six-Week Cycle – This is the one that is perhaps most significant for me.  Perhaps its just me, but I’ve noticed a roughly six-week cycle in my own motivation.  It could be 4-8 weeks, but I’ll call it 6 (I won’t call it 40 days in case it sounds like I have, or am making up, a biblical case for it).  It seems like I can trace a dip in motivation, or an increase in temptation, or a dip into dryness, roughly every six weeks.

You may be perpetually up, or unceasingly low, or you may notice some cyclical nature to your spiritual, emotional, ministerial motivation.  I think it is good to know our own patterns, to be aware of our own weaknesses, and to seek to deal with these things not through the effort of the flesh, but in an appropriate spiritual manner.  I’ll give my thoughts on that tomorrow.