Proverbs 19:20–23 ‘Many are the plans in a person’s heart, but it is the LORD’s purpose that prevails. What a person desires is unfailing love; better to be poor than a liar.’ (vv21–22)
Today there’s a growing demand for spiritual directors. A spiritual director does not give instruction or indeed direction, rather they’re a co-listener with God. The spiritual director is a witness alongside someone seeking to explore and express their encounter with God in whatever form or context they choose.
The fruit is always a harvest from the directee’s participation, the director always just a companion on their journey. Often this process enables the directee to gather the garbage accumulated in life and bin it. Even the smallest speck of dust can prevent us from seeing where and how God operates in our life.
Our inclination is to learn to accommodate all the garbage. Guidance can be unearthed amongst the seeds sown in us at our birth. These seeds can only germinate once we recognise and nurture them.
Yet, growing up we find so many distractions that lead us away from God’s garden, and these young plants wither and die for lack of care. Each seed, scattered at our conception, is the gift of God’s love. Our lives subconsciously yearn to come into conformity with such seeds, yet the obvious demands of life can crowd them out and we produce weeds, which are flowers planted in the wrong place.
Spiritual direction at its best empowers me to connect with those foundational seeds so that I enter into the peace that is God’s intention for my life and nurture those things that give me, and God, the greatest pleasure.
SCRIPTURE TO CONSIDER: Jonah 1:3–16; 1 Kings 19:1–18; Acts 9:1–8; Heb. 6:1–12
AN ACTION TO TAKE: Consider training as a spiritual director with Waverley Abbey College.
A PRAYER TO MAKE: ‘Lord, direct me to find and nurture the seeds that bring fullness of life. Amen.’
Photo by Alex Perez on Unsplash
