Spiritual Director Jenny Gehman reflects on her own journey in a spiritual direction and the divine hospitality she has experienced.
Jenny Gehman The East Coast representative for Mennonite Women USA is also a spiritual director, freelance writer, and retreat facilitator. She and her husband, Dan, attend James Street Mennonite Church in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. To learn more about Jenny or to engage with her as a spiritual director, please visit JennyGehman.com.
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About nine years ago, I searched for my first spiritual director. I had just stepped into what has since been called the crying age. It was a few years of losing my parents, my position, my people, and my place in this world.
I don’t think I was able to put it into words at the time, but looking back, I think I went in a spiritual direction with a desire to be heard rather than to be helped.
Helping involves working things out or working things out, and there’s probably a time and place for that. However, I had a small item that was broken and I needed a witness to get it working properly.
Simply put, I needed a safe place to calm my soul and examine what was out there. What my spiritual director has given me is best summed up in the kind words of Jean Richardson: He writes:
“There’s also a story
embedded in our skin
The words contained within us,
and may you bless us
With a gentle touch
release the story,
Trace the line,
free the words
One by one.
give them to us
who will listen to us
into our own language
toI we are speechless
and with laughter
when released
From the silence we’ve been keeping
good bye.”[1]
There are many different spiritual orientations. It’s about being present, listening, participating, and noticing. It is quiet, it is questioning, it is reflection and revelation, it is discovery and insight.
And it is a sacred hospitality where all your voices are heard.
David Augsberger once said: “Being heard is so close to being loved that it is almost indistinguishable to the average person.”
Sometimes the healing we seek comes less from being helped than from being heard, by having a safe place to calm our souls and sift through what is out there.
[1] Jean L. Richardson Night Vision: Seeking the Shadows of Advent and Christmas (United Church Press, 1998), 33.
To learn more about the Mennonite Spiritual Directors Network, visit mennosdn.org.
MC USA’s Church Vitality webpage has links to the Spiritual Director Network website and other congregational and clergy resources. https://www.mennoniteusa.org/
The views and opinions expressed in this blog belong to the authors and do not represent the views of the MC USA Board of Directors or staff.
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