Connected more than Directed: Spiritual Wayfinding versus Spiritual Direction
Many have asked, “What is Spiritual Wayfinding?” trying to classify it as therapy, life coaching, spiritual direction, pastoral care, or some combination of all of the above. I founded spiritual wayfinding as I was making my own way spiritually through life-altering events. While talk therapy was helpful, and spiritual direction as well, I found what I truly craved was a companion to hold the map for me while I figured out my own way to honor what God was calling me to within and beyond the reality in which I found myself.
No act of love is ever wasted.
There is no such thing as a truly “dead end” in our lives, and Spirit/Source/Universe/God is always rerouting us to discover and explore parts of ourselves and our stories that need healing, reconciliation, and to help us help others.
Directed? Or Connected?
Something my spouse and I often ask when checking in with each other is, “Directed? Or connected?” Because more than finishing a task, the point of relationship is to prioritize connection to each other. Even when one of us is doing a chore or preparing a meal, we want to feel connected to the deeper mission of life together: to enjoy one another’s company, to contribute to something meaningful beyond ourselves, and to chop vegetables/take out the trash as an expression of care and love.
The field of “Spiritual Direction” is one grounded in the task of helping its directees listen for God’s voice. This is enormously helpful and profound work! But I know myself, and even my relationship with God is not one in which I want to feel directed. I want to be connected to the divine. I want to be called, and I want to respond. My sense of Source is one of relationship, where God is big enough for me to push back on, argue with, and expect things of.
When I was a child, we sang a song in church, “I’m in the Lord’s Army,” which uses militaristic images of fighting in God’s cavalry, riding in God’s infantry, and taking orders from the General of the Heavens. Taking orders is a helpful way to understand God when you are a child. You need an adult in the room to make order and sense of things and to direct your behavior.
Listening for our True North
We are not children anymore. Many of us are navigating the most responsibility we will have in this earthly existence, and the last thing we need is someone directing us what to do or how to do it. We need a companion to hold the map while we figure out the way, while we listen and interpret the signs of where we are being called and where we can respond with the fullness of who we are.
This is why it’s “Spiritual Wayfinding.” There are plenty of how-tos and YouTube tutorials for directing household tasks and professional success. But what does it profit you to succeed at everything else and lose your soul in the process? That kind of life is marked by emptiness and nihilism. Spiritual wayfinding is a method for finding your way back to yourself, your truest truths, and allowing your path, behaviors, and habits to be authentic expressions of your unique values and beliefs.
Ready to make your way spiritually? Book a consult here and let’s get started, wayfinder.
