Something’s Going On

“Spiritual directors are people who have the gift of spiritual friendship. They seek to be present and attentive to others. They listen and look for signs of God in the experiences of others. Spiritual directors aren’t experts on God; in fact, good spiritual directors are very aware of their ignorance, blindness, and limitations in regards to the spiritual lives of others. They trust that God is doing the ministry, so they are satisfied to stand on the sidelines of a person’s life and simply reflect on what they are seeing.”

Now there’s an idea from Mark Yaconelli that’s been a long time in coming. And one that has eluded me for years. My idea has always been that it’s my responsibility to make an assessment and take the initiative if anything profitable was going to happen. What a relief to realize that God has already taken the initiative. As a matter of fact He’s been taking it for years. [Sigh of relief]…it’s not all on my shoulders.

Have you ever walked into a meeting late? Everyone else is on the same page but you are playing catch up. You pull out the agenda to see what topics have been discussed. You’re feeling a bit in the dark but make some assumptions, wait patiently for understanding, whisper to the person next to you to ask for a clarification. Finally you feel informed enough to participate.

It’s an analogy that reflects well how we enter into something that is already happening. Decisions have been made, directions have been set, actions have been taken. It’s God’s work and it’s been in progress for a long time. I enter the scene as a discerning participant when and where I am needed.

God is at work in my children, with the neighbor, that x-treme guy who just walked into the chapel, your spouse and the single gal who brings her two children to the Christmas and Easter services. I may not be able to see it on the surface but something is happening…the faithful prayers of grandparents, empty loneliness, searching for truth among the world’s religions, an unexpected blessing, a childhood Bible class, the loving kindness of a college friend, the sense of missing something in the Christian life, an out of context act of kindness, pain from the past, an unacknowledged conviction. One Christian writer even says God called him back into relationship through three unusual things – the beauty of classical music, the wonder of creation and the mystery of romantic love.

There are other ideas at work here as well. The idea that we serve as interpreters or reflectors in helping others see what God is doing. The idea that we don’t have it all together nor are we aware of all He is doing in the life of another. The idea that we are in this journey together. But most of all that indeed something is going on and our Father is at the bottom of it.