It’s evening, and I’m sitting at my home desk in front of a computer screen. I have a Zoom room opened up. Once again. I have been here a million times before, except this time, the lights are dim, the salt crystal lamp glows and the candle burns beside me.
As the woman on my screen speaks, I hear her stress and worry as she describes two opportunities that have opened up before her. She is on the cusp of transition and in the middle of discernment. I sit and listen for the ways God is moving in her life. I ask her questions to help her think through this decision. We listen for the Spirit — for wisdom — together.
I am seeking to provide spiritual direction, the ancient practice of witnessing without expectation and listening without judgment. It helps us look deeper within, particularly when we are surrounded by so many outside opinions and thoughts. As a spiritual director, I see the imago dei, or image of God, in every person, believing each is filled with the Spirit in their mind and body and soul.
Spiritual direction … is a space to explore what you already know but may find difficult to access.
Emily Phillips Davis
Spiritual direction is not a space where you will be given answers or told what to believe. It is a space to explore what you already know but may find difficult to access, especially in the tired and weary and opinionated world of 2022.
In the book of Genesis, God breathed life into creation. The Hebrew word for “breath” is ruach, which can also mean spirit. Everyone who breathes is spiritual and has a spirit. I believe spiritual direction is essential for all those who breathe. We all are on some kind of spiritual path.
More than two years into the pandemic, we are a weary world. Many of us feel tired, and many of us feel hopeless after so much time existing in a liminal — in-between — space. Some of us feel stuck. Some of us are looking for new patterns or rhythms of living. Many of us are in transition with work or with how we make meaning in the world. We are looking for peace and hope and some sense of reassurance or groundedness.
After questioning ourselves day-in and day-out for more than two years, we need to trust ourselves again. … We need a space to reclaim our courage and strength. We need a space to heal.
After questioning ourselves day-in and day-out for more than two years, we need to trust ourselves again. We have questioned the best ways to live during a pandemic, and we suffer from anxiety and fear of things out of our control. We need a space to reclaim our courage and strength. We need a space to heal.
In this time, spiritual direction is vital to our healing. The role of the spiritual director is to help the directee trust themselves, hear their inner voice or the Spirit, and then be guided by that voice in their lives.
The spiritual director is not another voice among the many voices telling seekers what to believe or how to live. Instead, the director creates a space to be welcomed into God’s presence and into the directee’s own presence. It is a space where they can heal, where they can listen to the voice within and discern what the Spirit is birthing within them.
I see spiritual direction as one way of resurrecting the dying church. Through spiritual conversations and relationships, we can heal, discern God and make meaning together.
Not only is spiritual direction imperative for our healing in this particular time, but it also reveals a way forward for the future of the church. As church attendance continues to decline and many clergy experience burnout, the church is being remade in new and different ways, outside of the walls of the building and outside of any institution or organization.
I see spiritual direction as one way of resurrecting the dying church. Through spiritual conversations and relationships, we can heal, discern God and make meaning together. We can reclaim and reimagine what we believe. Especially for those who have been marginalized by the church, spiritual direction offers a space to belong. And this gives me hope.
In a weary world, I hope you are finding space to heal and reclaim your courage and strength. Consider looking for a spiritual director on the Spiritual Directors International listing. You might find healing and respite on a spiritual director’s couch or Zoom room.
Emily Phillips Davis serves as a spiritual director and hospice chaplain in San Antonio, Texas. She is an ordained minister in the American Baptist Churches tradition and holds a Master of Divinity degree from Princeton Theological Seminary.