Personal Training and Spiritual Direction

This marks the 30th year I've been going to a gym. The very first one, besides my basement, was Heavy Metal Gym in Union Lake owned and operated by Rick Black. I've had many memberships in other gym since then: Lifter's (Fayetteville, NC), Iron City (Pontiac), Powerhouse, World's and Bally's (Waterford), Champions (Ypsilanti/Ann Arbor), Powerhouse, Ray's and the YMCA in Adrian to name the ones I can remember. I've learned a lot over the years. But I still learn new things that help me get bigger and stronger or leaner depending on what I'm training for. There are guys at my current gym, Jeff Willet's Powerhouse, who I pick up tips from (Rex, Dave, Josh, John and Jeff to name a few). Without them I wouldn't be working out as hard or as efficiently as I should. I consider myself a seasoned veteran of the gym, but I still need help in my fitness journey. 

The same is true in my spiritual journey. I'm a pastor with a wall full of degrees, but without a spiritual director I wouldn't be all that I could be or anywhere close to what God desires me to be. A spiritual director helps us on the journey. Even the best of the best guides that lead expeditions up Mount Everest need Sherpas to help them on their journey. Just as a personal trainer can help you in the gym, a spiritual director can help you in your walk with God. None of us are to the point where we've arrived and no longer need assistance.    

On Writing

This is my first blog post in a while and it is not because I haven't been writing...well sort of. I've been writing in my head, just not on paper (I keep waiting for someone to install a USB port at the base of my brain for easy downloading). But most of the writing (in my head) that I've been doing is on a novel that I'm working on for some time now. I've come to realize that fictional writing is like having a baby.

For months the idea grows in you. It grows and gets stronger with each and every passing day. It takes up a lot of your thinking and doesn't ever stray very far from the forefront of thought. Then comes that wonderful, painful day when you actually give birth to the novel. It explodes from inside you onto paper. Sometimes joyous, sometimes painful, but nonetheless you can't hold it in any longer. Then for years (this process is shorter or longer depending on who you are) you nurture it. You guide and develop it; you refine and mold it until that day your confident it can function in public and you set it free. How frightening it is when you let that which you love so much enter the world to be criticized! But you know that is what it was created for.

Right now I'm giving birth--it has been a long labor (since my Sabbatical) but the head is crowning and it is ready to come out. "Time to chase the unicorn!"