Day 35 - Issue 27
Proverbs 19:21 NLT
'You can make many plans, but the Lord’s purpose will prevail.'
I have trained and operated as a spiritual guide. Before I agree to work with someone, it’s essential we meet to decide if we are a good fit for each other. In the questions I get asked is always one about how I provide guidance. But a spiritual director/guide does not give instruction. Rather, it’s a listening together with God. The spiritual guide is something of a midwife, assisting at the birth of some insight which is all the product of the directee.
Of course, there’s another reason for finding an appropriate spiritual guide, and that’s to help us collect the garbage that we accumulate in our lives and carry it out to the dustbin. I’m amazed with the lack of interest I exhibit towards cleaning my home until I know someone is about to visit. I then blitz the place. I don’t want them to see just how messy my home is. So often that dirt is what prevents us from seeing where God is operating in our life. We become familiar with the garbage and learn to accommodate it.
Fulfilling our God-given destiny is so often about rediscovering what seeds were sown in us from our birth. As we grow up, distractions can lead us away from those things that give us fulfilment. It was eye-opening for me to spend time with a career consultant in my middle age completing many ‘tests’. What stood out for me in the report was the advice that I take time with nature, for this was an essential part of what energised my life.
In conversation with the consultant, I was encouraged to discover that if I’d followed my father’s advice and headed for a merchant bank after Oxford, I would probably have been sacked or gone mad! The heart and reality of guidance is finding how to do what I love. This may not be my primary career. My passion for people, for nature, for contemplation will not pay the bills, but does nourish my soul like nothing else can.
QUESTION: Do you need assistance in clearing some of the ‘mental junk’?
PRAYER: Lord, guide me to the areas where I will bear fruit for your kingdom.
