A conversation with Julie Anderton, by Mary Cropp

It was something she “fell into” really. time Bethany member, Julie Anderton remembers working for many years as a youth leader with Young Life and engaging in ministry in a way not too unlike a chess-match; preparing the “pieces” of a meeting, placing programs into action, and praying that something good would happen.

Years later, she was introduced to spiritual direction where she saw an entirely new way of relating to God—rather than “doing for God” she experienced God in the moment and found that she could engage with God in what was offered or happening.

Interested in knowing more about her work, Julie and I sat down in the (chilly!) church library one morning to discuss spiritual direction and her work at Christian Formation and Direction Ministries.

Q: Julie, what exactly is “spiritual direction” and why do people seek it out?

A: I feel that the term “spiritual direction” can be misleading, if not seducing, for both the director and directee. Rather, I prefer the phrase “spiritual guidance” as a working image of the process of walking together, looking, listening and discerning the presence of God in another’s life.

Spiritual guidance/direction can be best defined as the meeting of two or more people to let “God be God”. It is an experience of mutual discernment as those who gather listen deeply for the movements of Christ’s presence in areas of the directee’s life.

People come to spiritual guidance for many reasons. Some begin meeting with a spiritual director/guide because they are experiencing a dark night of the soul; others are simply looking for ways to deepen their relationship with Jesus. Some believers may be ready to stop “paddling around in the baby pool” in their relationship to God. Rather, these persons may desire a greater intimacy and trust in the work of the Holy Spirit flowing through the experiences and happenings in his or her life. The spiritual guide can offer a co-discerning role and provides a mirror to the directee of what might be in his or her heart in this contemplative place with God.

Q: Is spiritual guidance like therapy, but with a Christian flavor?

A: No, spiritual guidance is not therapy. The CFDM literature states it best -- therapy primarily is concerned with the attempt to bring healthy resolution to “problem areas in one’s life…spiritual direction or guidance is concerned with finding and responding to God in the midst of pain or confusion as well as in the rest of life.”

The spiritual director is not there to “fix” anything in the directee’s life. And that’s so hard because being prayerful and not solving a directee’s concerns is difficult for human beings. It doesn’t come naturally to either party in the spiritual guidance relationship. Our culture is so rational – we like to control our world by thinking, by reasoning, by wading in and talking. However, this leap to action is in many ways distrustful of God. The reality is that God can work without me, and I can sit on the front row of what might be happening in another’s encounter with our Lord.

I want to emphasize that though it is contrary to our natures to not just leap right in, the outcome is so much more profound when we look at what is going on both internally and in our external circumstances and when we wait and listen for the Holy Spirit’s movement.

Learning to pay attention to what is going on interiorly and externally takes both time and practice. It is often difficult to remain silent, to be in a place of disequilibrium, to not solve the directee’s problems. But part of the learning curve is to live with the awkwardness that is involved for both the director and the directee (or in the case of group spiritual guidance, all parties) as we learn to wait, to trust God, to not charge in and get in the way of what God is doing.

Q: What is a typical session like? Does it follow a predictable pattern?

A: A typical spiritual guidance session may start with a simple greeting and the director checking in with the directee –wondering what has been going on in his or her life with God since they last met. Typically, the next part of the hour-long session is entering into a prayerful place while being attentive to listen and discern feelings, questions, invitations, convictions, and encouragement in the presence of God.

This prayerful openness is an invitation for both parties to sit with what has been brought to the time together by the directee, and to pay attention to God in the directee’s life. However, these sessions do not work like a coke machine where there is an immediate input/output exchange. Instead it is both a sobering and exciting time where the process of nurturing trust in God’s love is on going.

After the session, the main agenda for the director is to continue in prayer for the directee; the director continues to be led by God’s Spirit and in what has been heard/experienced in their time together.

Q: For how long do you guide a person?

A: We meet once a month. But the duration of the relationship varies; it may be quite short or long-term. About 40% of my interactions are with people with whom I have met with for over five years.

Directee and director often develop a friendship over time, but if that gets in the way of listening to God, I recommend a new director for the participant.

If you are interested in finding a spiritual director, see the CDFM website (http://www.cfdmnorthwest.org) for a link listing spiritual guides in the greater Seattle area.