A Christian spiritual director is a trained listener who will accompany you as you share about your spiritual journey, helping you to notice God’s presence and activity along the way, as well as your personal reactions and responses. Hospitable, confidential, and grounded in biblical truth, spiritual direction is a ministry that helps you grow in prayer and live into your calling as a follower of Christ.
Is a Spiritual Director Necessary?
Do I really need a Spiritual Director? Can’t I do this by myself?
While I cannot answer these questions for you, I will share my personal journey:
As I studied, I began to realize the stunning depth of God’s all-encompassing regard for humanity, each individual, including me.
Before time began.…before Trinity’s one deliberate action in creating the cosmos as we know it, before the foundation of the world (Ephesians 1:4, NET), “God spoke you forth as a word (not the Word) from before the foundation of the world., “God foreknew you into being.” (Shaped by the Word, M. Robert Mulholland, p.35). In Romans, we read of God’s stated intention for those he foreknew, those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son (Romans 8:29, NET)
“You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it rests in you.” St. Augustine underscores the impasse we find ourselves in when God’s regard for his pre-creation spoken words find themselves in disarray. God’s words find themselves restless, lost beyond recovery until they perceive God’s invitation and respond to become a part of his Kingdom, the eternal community of the Trinity—Father, Incarnate Word, and Holy Spirit
God always watches over his word(s). He is always at work in each life. God has given gifts through his church to help those seeking rest for the soul. God’s callings and giftings include the ancient Christian ministry of Spiritual Director.
Our spiritual journey as God’s pre-existent word(s) is a Big Deal and begs of us our highest regard and attention.
We all know what a challenge giving full attention to our spiritual journeys is. It is so easy to get sidetracked and find ourselves wandering around confused about where we are headed. The gift of a spiritual director is, in Eugene Peterson’s words, someone to take my life of prayer and my pilgrimage with Christ as seriously (or more seriously) than I did, someone who was able to hear the distinct uniqueness of my spirituality, and who had enough disciplined restraint not to impose an outside form on me.
A Spiritual Director is a gift.
Of the many names and description given to the spiritual director, my favorite is spiritual midwife. The spiritual director desires most that what is being birth in you, will come to full and vital life. How gratifying to both directee and director alike to watch God’s purposes unfold as a person becomes more aware of the presence and grows into the image of Jesus.
The spiritual friend who is invested in your spiritual success is a gift indeed.
