What is Spiritual Direction?
Spiritual maturity is neither instant nor automatic—
it is gradual, progressive development that will take the rest of your life.
Rick Warren
Spiritual direction is a caring relationship in which the entire focus of your time with your director is on your personal relationship with and experience of the Divine in your life in the present moment.
Many people find that they know a lot ABOUT divinity or spirituality, but they’ve struggled to “get” having a relationship WITH its source. Spiritual direction can help begin, grow, and continually nurture that relationship in a way that impacts all areas of your life.
While this historically a Christian practice, it obviously is not limited to Christianity and can be entered into by people of any faith or spirituality.
Through listening, discerning, asking insightful questions, and leading spiritual practices, a spiritual director becomes a wise companion on the journey who can help you sense and discern the activity of the Divine in your life, noticing things that otherwise might have been missed.
Spiritual direction enables you to “pay attention to God’s personal communication to you, to respond to this personally communicating God, to grow in intimacy with this God, and to live out the consequences of the relationship.”
William A. Barry and William J. Connolly
Unlike counseling, in spiritual direction, when you meet together GOD sets the agenda—regardless of what you’re bringing to the session that day—and the intention is to “hold space” for you to be present to and engaged with God in a meaningful way with whatever you’ve brought to the table. The goal of the director, therefore, is not to “direct” as we traditionally understand the term but to be attuned to God’s agenda, position you to experience God, and then get out of the way.
This takes place, practically speaking, in confidential one-hour sessions one to two times a month with someone trained to accompany others in an intentional way through this very important journey.
What this really looks like, a lot of the time, is just being quiet together and listening. Asking questions. Being curious. Noticing. Being OPEN. Taking a few risks. Embracing discomfort. Learning to see God at work in ALL things. Connecting with your deepest God-given desires. Sensing what God’s ALREADY up to in your life, personally, and learning how to deeply cooperate with him.
Successful spiritual direction would look like, then, coming to know God and self in such a way that you experience a growing sense of intimacy with and experience of the Lord and of his rich, formational work bearing good fruit in your life.
Who looks outside, dreams.
Who looks inside, awakes.
Carl Yung
People seeking spiritual direction might be experiencing:
- Significant life change
- The desire to hear God’s voice clearly
- Stagnation in their faith journey
- A crisis of faith
- Something unexpected and unwelcomed
- A sense that there must be more to this world
- A “dark night of the soul”
- Desire for spiritual growth
- A desire for greater peace and inner stillness
- Doubt or confusion
- A difficult or unclear decision
- Loss of hope
- Longing for purpose and significance
- A moral quandary
- Hunger for more of God
- The desire for deeper spiritual maturity
- Disillusionment with the church
- Curiosity
- Trauma or loss
- A deeper spiritual experience
- Desire for beauty and meaning
The truth is that spiritual formation takes place as we embrace the challenges and opportunities associated with each season of our life.
Ruth Haley Barton
While I profess to be a follower of the teachings of Jesus, I am able and open to providing spiritual direction to people from any faith background, even if your background is having NO faith background.
Because I believe we were created to experience and engage with something beyond this ephemeral world and its momentary troubles.
Something bigger.
Something more beautiful.
Something our spirits long for.