God’s regular movement in a life is less about convenient interventions and coincidences, like a free parking spot when you need it or miraculous healing from an accident, and more about drawing you into noticing what is subtle but unmistakable. “Do any life occurrences have anything to do with a divine being?” you may ask. Though that is entirely a valid question, spiritual direction is not about debate and arm’s length analysis. It’s about what’s really going on in a person and their lived experience of seeking to engage with the Inner Voice of love.
Imagine in your particular story where you are, how you are, what your deepest desires are, what your unique suffering is. To the measure we can notice ourselves well in that space, we may come to also notice the invitations of God in such moments – invitations to awe and humility, to rest and assurance, to confession, to joy and savouring goodness, to confronting the lies at work in our lives, to specific resolve, to forgiveness of another or oneself.
Spiritual direction prioritizes listening to that voice, not through generalized platitudes but by taking the time to listen deeply to a life – a sacred, unique, complex but persistently loved life.
And maybe not. Maybe it’s not readily clear what’s ‘of God’. But, you locate yourself more deeply in your own shoes. That is still an honouring and dignified place to find yourself while you wait and struggle to make sense of life and God.
At the same time, we all do a good job of missing divine invitations. We keep busy. We avoid. We live by competing narratives. And let’s face it, what we want to do, we don’t. What we don’t want to do, we do. In the midst of contending with our darkened and lightened selves, we are prone to forget to listen to the deeper voice that names us, and that loves us relentlessly.
How can you prove that something is the touch of God?
Well, I can’t. But my job as a spiritual director is not about apologetics, theologizing or philosophizing. It’s true that you may be feeling as you do because of what you ate for breakfast or because of the way you’re wired as a result of early childhood experiences. But our feelings, our bodies, our reactions, our choices, our thoughts, the images and narratives we live by, all have the potential to offer meeting places for where we might encounter God deep in our being. Rumi describes it well:
The Guest House
This being human is a guest house.
Every morning a new arrival.
A joy, a depression, a meanness,
some momentary awareness comes
as an unexpected visitor.
Welcome and entertain them all!
Even if they are a crowd of sorrows,
who violently sweep your house
empty of its furniture,
still, treat each guest honorably.
He may be clearing you out
for some new delight.
The dark thought, the shame, the malice.
meet them at the door laughing and invite them in.
Be grateful for whatever comes.
because each has been sent
as a guide from beyond.
— Jellaludin Rumi, translation by Coleman Barks
It’s rarely obvious on the surface what these ‘unwanted’ guests mean. And for many, it doesn’t sit well to attribute all that happens to us as some kind of divine orchestration. But over time, the narrative of holy texts that have rooted us, the communities of faith and care around us, and God’s very spirit in our breath and our souls may converge. We might just find deep resonance that what’s going on inside and around us, in the midst of what might be puzzling or awful, has the touch of something that comes from outside us.
And we yield. We risk trusting. We dare to surrender. We act.
Spiritual directors, if they are trained well, are ever growing in awareness of their own baggage so they can be vigilant to leave their agendas at the door. They are not trying to hoodwink you or bring sessions to tidy resolution. In fact, spiritual direction is expressly not about solving problems or enhancing human functioning, as is more explicitly the goal in counselling or therapy. These might happen but the primary text is a person’s relating to God. A director thus focuses the attention of a session on taking God seriously, and taking your life seriously. Your feeling heard as truly yourself in a safe context, and your feeling that you are engaging the holy and precious mystery of your own being and a relentless Divine lover – the presence of these tell you your spiritual director is doing their job with care and integrity. That’s not to say all sessions end with clarity, or that you won’t be provoked. Facing the harsh realities of life, the stubbornness of our resistance to light, and a mysterious God can all lead us to places we might not want to see, but never outside the grasp of a God who initiates in love.
Tim’s Approach to Spiritual Direction
Tim’s role is to look for what is currently alive for each person, and in that particular place for the ways God is inviting that person to open to love and freedom.
