Spiritual Direction
I've been reading Tony Jones' book THE SACRED WAY. Today I read ch. 10 on Spiritual Direction. Does anyone have any experience with this?
Jones says on p.110:
"...at its heart, spiritual direction attempts to recreate that same environment in which Adam walked with God: A time of peace adn listening to discover where God is moving in one's life."
He goes on... "The belief implicit in spiritual direction is that God's Spirit is alive and active in the world, constantly moving in the believer's life. The second premise is that believers who are experienced in life and faith and who are committed to spiritual disciplines themselves may be able to help others to notice the movements of the Spirit."
He used a great metaphor: "We're like two people sitting on a train; I'm in the aisle seat, you're in the window seat, and you are describing to me what you see."
So... a question I have is... do you think spiritual direction can take place in a format such as this "group" blog? a personal blog? online at all?
I know this isn't necessarily the same thing, but I think it would be great to find a group of people willing to share how they see God working in their lives -- without having to worry about someone else judging them or trying to "correct their thinking." Maybe that's too idealistic. It would be hard, no doubt. But just a thought. Do you think it's possible?
posted by dan at 9:11 AM
2 Comments:
I don't think it can take place in a group blog. Maybe one that is made up of a select group and one that is not public.
I see two problems. One is it is too public. While I might correct Lance in the right moment, I would not correct him in front of everybody. It also isn't an inviting place for the raw honesty required in spiritual direction.
Two, the written word as expressed on blogs and in email are too easy to misinterpret. It is too sensitive a thing to blog.
That said, I think it a place to stimulate some ideas, create some offline conversations, inspire, and even blogs that share a lot of personal info are good because you feel some intimacy.
Thanks for the input Lance & Brian. I'm not sure if it's possible either. Sometimes I wonder if it's even possible personally (two people physically in the same place). I think different people work differently. Some are much more open in a blog; some are the opposite. Some people you can really get to know just by the way they write; some you can't; some you can't get to know even after years of friendship. So... who knows. Maybe getting to know people doesn't have all that much to do with anything. Then again, maybe it's everything.
Yeah. I dunno.
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