What is a Spiritual Director?

I discerned my personal call to spiritual direction during a five-day formation academy offered by Upper Room ministries. The call had its genesis when my own counselor quoted her mentor, who said that the deep issue behind so much of human pain is an inability to receive the love of God. That sentence helped me wrap words around my call – the desire to companion with others as they listen for and savor the loving activity of God in their lives, leading to deeper communion with God. What started as a discernment process between the vocations of counseling and life coaching led me to a clear call to become a spiritual director, culminating in my completion of the three-year program for spiritual direction through Audire.

 

I feel an affinity for companioning with those in life transitions who are struggling to discern their next right steps as they walk with God. In my career I’ve experienced business takeovers, lay-offs, unemployment, and the ups and downs of self-employment. I’ve journeyed through seasons of grief in the loss of my dad as a young child and my mother as an adult. I understand both the pain of transition and the good God can work within us in difficult times.

I’ve been in church since my conversion in 10th grade. I’ve seen the beauty of Jesus’s body caring in love, and like most folks, I have a few scars, too. I began a reconstruction of my own faith about ten years ago, and came out the other side renewed in my faith by God’s grace and the Spirit’s patient counsel.

In the midst of my reconstruction I was introduced to the contemplative areas of Christianity through authors like Dallas Willard and Gerald May, whose books joined other favorites in my bookshelf (like C.S. Lewis, Vance Havner, Madeline L’Engle, to name a few.) I learned about things like spiritual formation, walking labyrinths, centering prayer, and Ignatian spirituality.