what is spiritual direction
I have not Googled Spiritual Direction or Spiritual Formation, but I know when I do I will discover a myriad of sites devoted to the subject. I can only imagine how I would have defined Spiritual Direction prior to my Seminary experience.
The point of this article is to paint pictures of spirit and spirituality, spiritual formation and spiritual direction, from my perspective.
If someone asked you to take the easier road and explain, rather than define spirituality, how would you do it? It would be a mistake to assume spirituality is strictly Christian, Buddhist, Catholic not Protestant or New Age. Is it Jungian Psychology or Celtic Christianity? What about Greek Orthodox? Anglican? Jewish? Islamic? Egyptian? All of these and many more claim a share in spirituality, including the occult and those who claim to communicate with spirits.
I am only interested in Christian spirituality. So what is that? Does that make you think of smoke and candles, Gregorian Chanting, meditation, contemplation, ethics, morality? Is it primarily reflecting on God's creation or God's Word as in lectio devina? Is it strictly prayer and fasting? Without a strong theological foundation, confusion as well as misunderstanding can lead you to a place you'd rather not be or maybe cause you to avoid an area that might be rich with blessing. To be sure, wholeness, healing and psychological growth have their place in the context of relationship with Jesus Christ, but without that relationship with Christ being front and center as well as foundational everything else is smoke and candles. There is no eternal value in wholeness, healing and psychological health without relationship with God.
In video simple effects have a starting point and an ending point. The ending point is different from the starting point. It might be a different size than the beginning point or in a different location or maybe the opacity is different. What happens between these two points is an animation. The animation or life, if I may call this movement from the beginning point to the ending point life, is the spirit of these two points. Neither the beginning point nor the ending point is the spirit. It is the movement between these two points that is the animation, the life, the spirit.
My simple animation is quite different from the classical definitions of life force, ruah, pneuma, spiritus, prajna, but is it? This simple example, in a medium I understand, helps me understand the classical definitions of spirit. Is this movement between the beginning point and the ending point not relational? What causes the ending point to be in a different place than the beginning point? Metaphors lose their power beyond the original impression, but though time and distance separate those two points, what motivates the ending point to a different position is what motivates and concerns us; desire, passion, love. These are they which energize us through life, connect us with God and then with each other.
The animation not only joins the beginning and ending points, it brings the points on a video timeline to life. The spirit is what makes our life and everything meaningful. It is more real than the data we receive from touching, smelling, seeing, hearing. It is all together beautiful and at the same time very natural and normal. It is not extra-ordinary, but very ordinary. Why then don't we pay more attention to our spirit?
I am a simple person who considers information as data. The world and even you and I are all about manipulating data to massage our own agendas, just as the world is all about inundating us with its agendas. That is the way it is. We are sheep, some of us have a shepherd and some of us mistakenly think we are in control of our own lives.
I do not practice spiritual direction as a tool for controlling who I am or what I do. It is not my tool for self-discovery or another 'how-to' resource. I know who I am in Christ and I know who and what I am without Christ.
By now where I am coming from should be clear. I have no hopes of humanity evolving into a self-sacrificing, caring global community of like minded, kind hearted people wanting the greater good for the world and each other. Until Christ becomes the head of the church I don't see the church faring much better than society, you, or me. Community is vital, but community is made up of individuals who need to have the same head. Until then, whether we admit it or not, we will all continue with and in our own struggles; whether fear of losing what we never really had or fear of being found out for who we really are. Spiritual direction and spiritual formation help me draw closer to God and perfect love, and perfect love casts out fear perfectly.
Why do we think a better cell-phone, internet connection, ipod, or cranking up the music so you can't hear yourself think will erase the cry within us to know who we are and why we are here? The pleasure of that extra cookie is temporary. Seriously, can the excitement of an illicit affair, drugs, alcohol, career, or even ministry give us the sustainable peace we all long for? I said sustainable. Peace, sustainable peace with our self and our neighbor can only be found in our relationship with Jesus Christ.
Spiritual formation is about getting off the merry-go-round and being still. It is about being transformed into the image of Christ. It is about the peace and wholeness which come from a relationship with the living Christ.
Wholeness is bantered about by many, especially when conversations inevitably turn to social justice within societal structures, geo-politics and economics, gender and race. I see all of these as secondary to having a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. Sure, these are important, but first we need to be equipped, not necessarily with special training, tools, or software, but with an attitude that comes only from spending time with the Lord. I didn't say time with some charismatic TV evangelist or listening over and over to a CD of Gregorian chants, but time with God. Who you hang out with effects who you are.
I am often in my office working with video. It requires my focused attention. I can spend hours so involved in my work I neither see, nor speak to Lily when she is downstairs. Nonetheless, regardless of how engaged I am in my work our house is peaceful when she is downstairs and empty when she is not.
I spend my quiet mornings in various ways; reading my Bible, reading a list of prayer requests, pacing up and down while praying and-or sometimes just sitting still. The specific routine used to be important to me, but not anymore. It isn't about what I am doing as much as it is who I am with. It is making space for God. I know God is omnipresent, but when I intentionally set aside time to be alone with God, the time takes on a sacramental essence. I always wanted to hear God speak or see God in visions, but I am becoming, note I said becoming, more and more content knowing that just as the lawn grows without me seeing it, so God is sacramentally with me in my devotional times.
Without measurable or at least tangible results I used to think my mornings were a waste of time, time I could spend being productive, doing what I thought justified my existence. One fidgety morning it dropped into my spirit that my devotional time is similar to when Lily is in the house compared to when she is not. Silly as it sounds this was a breakthrough for me. Now I imagine that Jesus comes in the room and takes a seat. Whether the Lord speaks or not, it is enough to know I am not alone. His eyes follow me whether I pace back and forth, read my prayer list or read my Bible. It is enough, for now, to sometimes feel God smile.
I am slow to learn. It has taken several years to reach this place of peaceful, guilt free mornings. I continue to struggle with many things and probably always will, but my mornings start on the right foot and I believe they influence my attitude toward God and others through-out the day.
How did I come to this place of waking and thanking God for each new day, for a joyful and loving wife, for our children, health and God's protection? I believe God has and is using spiritual direction to help push back the old feelings of failure; helping me, little by little, to accept when I don't get my way and even to forgive myself for continuing to make mistakes.
When I started each day reading my prayer list I was not criticized for my religiousness. What else would you call keeping track of the number of mornings you get up at five? Self-righteousness lingers near all of us, robbing us of opportunities for more relationships and robbing the church of its witness. Spiritual direction helped me get past the guilt of missing a day or more, of changing my routine and finally understanding the routine is not the issue. The issue is my heart, my posture toward God and my attitude toward relationship.
Spiritual direction is helping me to be more aware when God is moving within me, often contrary to my will. I still battle with obedience, but at least I am becoming more aware of the battle. It is one thing for your brain to read that God is a personal being interested in everything and everyone in your life. It is something completely different when your heart begins to recognize God not only loves you, but God is gracious, respecting the freedom God and all of us have paid so dearly for.
Is there a better reason to make every effort to discern the promptings of the Holy Spirit? Again, God is gracious. The world does everything to compete for our attention. We are swayed, captured, addicted to the momentary distractions of a world getting louder and noiser.
God continues to use spiritual direction to emphasize to me that more is required than a yearning, a desire to hear God's voice. Myers-Briggs, the Enneagram, Jung and so many other indicators tell us that though we have much in common, none-the-less, each of us is different. Fingerprints and snowflakes remind us God knows that difference.
In spiritual formation there is no one size fits all. There is no perfect way to Christ. Christ IS the way. As the deer pants for the water we are to desire Christ, but does not the deer search for the water? Did not the ancient priests carrying the ark have to first step into the river? We must be intentional with our desire to know God. This means opening the door at the sound of the knock, not only inviting God into our lives, but making space, making time for God.
It is one thing to tell friends to stop by any time. It is something completely different to arrange a time for them to come. Spiritual direction seeks to impress upon the directee that he or she needs to make that arrangement, set the time and keep it as frequently as possible. When you can't be there it's time to ask why not. A noisy world will sometimes drown out the question. A Spiritual Director can help by asking the questions we can't hear our own spirit ask. We know the question and we know the answer, but sometimes we are too distracted, even with good things like caring for someone else. A Spiritual Director can not only ask those questions, but a sensitive director will know the directee has the answer, not the director.
I want to emphasize the ipod, music, ministry, career, and even my Blazers are not evil. Our attitude toward these things, the importance we give these things in our life can, however, drown out the muffled cry of our spirit. If you have surrendered being with God, reading your Bible and prayer because you don't have enough time for God then you are not prepared for the crisis situations that come to one and all. We pass through trials and wonder afterwards how we made it. Do you not hear the desire of your spirit wanting to be alone with God to say thank you?
I was raised on 'plan your work and work your plan.' Some things are beyond our ability to prepare for. Maybe you are wise enough to prepare for losing your job, but how do you prepare for losing a parent? Can insurance stop the bleeding and weeping of a broken heart? The only way to prepare for the unknown is to draw closer and closer to the Lord. Just as idleness can keep us from what is important, so can busyness. Relationship is the product of time spent together; between husband and wife, parent and child, friend and friend and us and God.
After twenty six years of marriage would it be right for me to say I love Lily as much as I did in the beginning, or should I say I love her more? Since God wants what is best for us isn't it contrary to God's nature to drown out the loudest music and speak to us directly? Would that help us grow in a loving relationship with God? Would that help us to be mature, discerning Christians, loving God with all our heart and our neighbor as our self? It would get our attention, but then what? As I said before, our desire for God must be more than a desire, it should call us to action. When I first saw Lily my heart stopped. I didn't know what to say. If I had left it at that, if I had not talked to her and asked her out, we would never have had the relationship we have today. After the Lord I count our relationship as the most precious experience of my life.
Maturity brings discernment. My director and my directees help me discern the voices clamoring for my attention. This only happens when we learn to hear God's voice. Lily could be standing in the middle of a group of ladies who are all talking, but if she called me I would know her voice. Would I hear her if I was wearing headphones? Obviously not, but each of us contends with our own secret, intimate desires that can act like headphones. It is helpful if someone else who knows God's voice can help us discern our own agendas from God's. There is no guarantee that you and your Spiritual Director will decide correctly, but two hearts are better than one.
For me spiritual direction must be based on the Bible because the Bible reveals God's nature. I lack perfect clarity when I gaze on God's nature as I believe we all do. Paul tells us we all see through a glass darkly. I believe the Lord wants us to know God and that is why we study God's Word, not for information, not to memorize scripture and impress our friends, but so the veil can be removed from our eyes so we can know God's nature. Even Nebuchannazar said, "But I see four men unbound, walking in the middle of the fire, and they are not hurt; and the fourth has the appearance of a god." We need to become more and more aware of God's presence, even in our trials.
A good spiritual director is humble, prepared to be wrong, charitable, and slow to judge. They must be open to God's guidance for them as well as their directee. Directors must be consistent with what God has said previously and remember God never condemns; if you hear a condemning voice, it isn't God’s. God will indeed judge, separating the sheep from the goats, but God does not condemn those seeking the Lord.
We all want to grow in discernment, but discernment is no different from prayer or other areas of a person's spirituality. God will meet us where we are, but we must work to prepare ourselves to listen and to act on what we hear.
The ancient priest looked at himself in the bronze lavar which was made from the mirrors of the women who served at the entrance to the tent of meeting. We look into God's Word. If any are hearers of the word and not doers, they are like those who look at themselves in a mirror; for they look at themselves and, on going away, immediately forget what they were like. We have been told if we will judge ourselves we will not be judged. In both cases, when self-examination reveals and the Holy Spirit convicts us of things that need to be changed then we are expected to be obedient. Just as we examine ourselves before we take communion, so we must prepare ourselves before coming into the presence of God.
Remember that data, information, instructions become wisdom only when applied in a manner consistent with God's nature. Am I acting as the Lord wants me to act? What moved me to act this way? What am I feeling? Why am I feeling this way? Where did this feeling come from? What will help me the next time I encounter this situation or a situation similar to this? These are all questions we should ask ourselves.
The ultimate goal of Spiritual Formation is twofold. (1) We want a closer, more intimate relationship with God. (2) We want a lifetime of discernment, an instinctive sensitivity and obedience to what pleases God. My plea is always for the Holy Spirit to help me love the Lord the way I am supposed to. Can that happen if I am not willing to spend time with God?