I believe that half the spiritual journey—no make that three-fourths of the journey—is having a spiritual guide you can trust.
~James L. Snyder~
Our lives have been marked by the wisdom of many who have guided us, by example and deeds, to align ourselves with the deepest desires of our hearts. They guide us as we seek to know Jesus, to fall more in love with him, and to allow that relationship to form us into healing agents in the world.
The most influential guides in our lives share our Christian faith. Yet, among this band of followers, we don’t always agree on every theological point. Wisdom is still to be found in these wise souls who have wrestled with the truth of what it means to believe in and follow Jesus.
Some of the resources listed here may surprise you as they claim no allegiance to the One we worship. We find playing the tension of opposites can stir the life of Jesus within our hearts just as well as one from our own tribe.
Whatever their spiritual inclination, these men and women speak a language that touches the soul and draws us toward our Beloved. And in that we trust the only worthy guide, the Holy Spirit, who if any wisdom is to be found at all, has both inspired to give and to soften the heart to receive.
Books
Ragamuffin Gospel, Brennan Manning
The Pursuit of God, A.W. Tozer
The Cup of our Life, Joyce Rupp
Intimacy with the Almighty, Charles Swindoll
Solace of Fierce Landscapes, Belden C. Lane
Backpacking with the Saints, Belden C. Lane
An Invitation to a Journey, M. Robert Mulholland, Jr.
Celebration of Discipline, Richard Foster
A Sacred Journey, Frederick Buechner
Leaving Egypt, Chuck DeGroat
Wholeheartedness, Chuck DeGroat
Transformed into Fire, Judith Hougen
The Gifts of Imperfection, Brene Brown
Poems
The Journey, Mary Oliver
Sweet Darkness, David Whyte
What to Remember When Waking, David Whyte
Sometimes a Sapling, Ted Macker
Pry Me Off Dead Center, Ted Loder
Mother Wisdom Speaks, Kristen Lore Webber
Poems of Your Life, Micahel
The Art of Drowning, Billy Collins
Arctic Tern, Moya Cannon
Quotes
"There is more hope in brokenness than in pretense of false wholeness"
Jamie Arpin Ricci, Vulnerable Faith
"We've been separated from the source of our identity and have to fall in love with it all over again. We need to give ourselves to the wellspring of our passion....delighting in its beauty and accepting the discipline love requires. We recognize what we are most deeply only as we relinquish what we aren't."
Belden C. Lane, Backpacking With the Saints
"Sustaining 'life in the Spirit' under pressure, I think, has rather a lot to do with retaining the ability to say to God, 'Tell me who I am.' Because I'm not going to settle with what everybody else is telling me-I'm not even going to settle with what I'm telling me. I'd like to hear from you...I'd like to hear you saying my name."
Rowan Williams, "Staying Spiritually Healthy: Maintaining a Healthy Spiritual Life Under Pressure," an address given at U. of Warwick, May 26, 2012
"We are called to a "B", Big life; abundant, full, not little life cut off from the whole."
Frederick Blechner, From an interview with Walter Bruggermann.
"Discipline is a delicate way of recalling what it is you really want. It is a choice to be what you know you have to be. Yet it's disconcerting too--demanding that you remain true to yourself even when you're not sure what that means."
Belden C. Lane, Backpacking with the Saints
