How Does Spiritual Direction Affect Christian Writers?
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It’s easy to think our various roles, vocational callings, work responsibilities, and interests are disconnected. We have a list of the things that tell us who we are: I’m a wife, a mom, a friend, a daughter, a Christian, a writer, a spiritual director, a neighbor, a lover of art, a reader, etc. We can write all of these things down on a piece of paper and number them and allocate time and energy to each item. We can make to-do lists for each item. We can decide to give our attention to three of them this week and four of them next week.
But our minds, hearts, and souls aren’t fractured. We may try to compartmentalize our responsibilities and roles, but we are whole beings with whole souls. Everything we do, say, receive, offer, ingest, avoid, destroy, create, and protect forms who we are. Some actions form us more than others. Some form us in more meaningful ways than others. But we are always being formed. Every second of every hour of every day.
So, the writing life and the life of faith are connected for Christian writers whether or not we realize it, whether or not we consider how and why this is true. Beliefs, doubts, and confusion about ourselves, others, God, and the world will work their way into our creative work and our creative process whether we want them to or not. The shadows of our theological tenets will cover our words and sentences and paragraphs even if we don’t want that to happen. Whether or not we can put our butts in the chair and write the crappy first draft of that thing we need to write may very well be affected by what’s stirring in our souls.
Another important component is the way writing and prayer are similar. Many believe all writing is prayer. Many people use writing as an intentional form of prayer. Many do different types journaling prayers which are forms of prayer that use writing.
I’ve noticed that my clients’ writing life and writing work shift when there have been shifts in their faith. When they come to a better understanding of how God is present in their lives and their work, things change. These changes look different for each client although there can be common threads.
I’m not going to pretend to know why and how these changes occur. I’m comfortable with mystery and not knowing the answers to every question. And I’m perfectly happy to ask more questions in lieu of seeking answers.
When I meet with a spiritual direction client who’s a Christian writer and notice these sorts of shifts, here are a few questions I might ask:
What kinds of changes have you noticed in the ways you experience the presence of God?
What connections are you seeing between your writing and your faith experiences?
When you discovered this new attribute of God, how did your practice of writing shift?
How have your views of yourself as a writer changed since you noticed this particular way God meets you?
Every client will have a different answer. Some clients won’t have any answers. Yet. Some clients will want to sit with the questions and pray though them and see how God shows up. Again. Some clients will forget about the questions and never give them any thought at all.
But I believe the very act of asking a question and the very act of hearing a question help form us into who we will be in an hour or a day or a week. Hearing a particular question might affect the words we write tomorrow. Asking a particular question may help us see God or ourselves or our neighbor in a new light, even if we never know any answers to those questions.
Charlotte Donlon helps her readers and clients notice how they belong to themselves, others, God, and the world. Charlotte is a writer, a spiritual director for writers, and the founder of Spiritual Direction for Writers™ and Parenting with Art™. She is also the founder and host of the Our Faith in Writing podcast and website. Her essays have appeared in The Washington Post, The Curator, The Christian Century, Christianity Today, Catapult, The Millions, Mockingbird, and elsewhere. She holds a Master of Fine Arts in creative writing from Seattle Pacific University where she studied creative nonfiction with Paula Huston and Lauren F. Winner. She holds a certificate in spiritual direction from Selah Center for Spiritual Formation. Her first book is The Great Belonging: How Loneliness Leads Us to Each Other. To receive Charlotte’s latest updates, news, announcements, and other good things, subscribe to her email newsletter.