Dwight H. Judy - Discerning Life Transitions: Listening Together in Spiritual Direction

M y life story has involved major shifts every ten to fifteen years within my career. These have usually been accompanied by changes in location as well. My wife, Ruth, has been a discernment partner for each of these changes. We've been surprised by some of our decisions. They have taken us to places we would never have imagined and to work that could not have been anticipated in our early twenties. Life has become a mystery journey for us. Since the mid-1980s, I have also worked with many creative people in midlife, seeking to discern new life directions. Perhaps the greatest surprise, as well as the greatest satisfaction in my career, was helping to create the nationally recognized United Methodist Certification in Spiritual Formation in 2000. As this book goes to press, I'm amazed at the many people with whom I've worked over the past decade who are now seeking this specialized form of ministry. I am constantly inspired by the wisdom of these women and men, as they articulate their unique ministries of spiritual guidance. This book would not have been possible without the courage, prayer, and dedication of the many individuals whom I have been able to accompany in vocational discernment. This book has been inspired by observation of God's dynamic work in their lives. In working with midlife adults in spiritual direction and spiritual formation studies, I have come to believe that all creative people will experience times of major transition in their life's calling, vocational direction, and family commitments throughout their adult years. We will seek to understand these changes together.

This book is for persons in discernment and for spiritual directors who accompany them. For me, the sense of life vocation or life calling is the broad theme that shapes our listening together in spiritual direction. I use the term vocation to mean our core sense of life purpose, which may reveal itself in multiple areas of our livesthrough our commitments to family, friends, and community, as well as the more focused use of the term to describe our work life. I am always listening in a spiritual direction session for the underlying shifts in such core purpose. Our spiritual disciplines enable us to listen for such shifts within ourselves and one another. I have developed and used the reflective exercises of this book during my years of teaching and retreat leadership. These resources are offered to my colleagues in spiritual direction ministries for use in retreats, workshops, and individual encounters, with my permission. Scripture references frequently have brackets. These are either for gender inclusive concerns or to denote a more common usage than the translation used.

I wish to express my appreciation to the administration and faculty of Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary for a sabbatical semester, fall 2005, which created the spaciousness of time and easing of commitments, to begin this writing process. I am grateful to Nancy Fitzgerald, former editor at Morehouse, for her editorial suggestions; to Spiritual Directors International for their vision in creating this imprint; to Frank Tedeschi, senior editor at Morehouse; and to Joan Castagnone for the final editing of this book.

May these reflections prove beneficial to many in the quest for meaningful work and service, as well as in the quest for balance of family, personal, and vocational choices.

Discerning Life Transitions is a resource for people in discernment of a major life decision and those who assist them. This is a book about personal vocation, the sense of vocatio, the inner voice. Vocation describes the core purpose of our life at a given time. Sometimes our personal sense of vocation finds wonderful congruence with the more common use of vocation to describe our work or career. Frequently, work does not complete us so fully. We may need to express our primary sense of personal calling instead through volunteer activities and community service, through caring for children, grandchildren, or aging parents. Perhaps we express our primary sense of life purpose through our charitable giving, gardening, or artistic endeavors. We may be entering a time of retreat, when our primary focus is our spiritual life, even while we continue to be engaged in work and family commitments. This core sense of personal calling will be balanced throughout our reflections with the other primary dimensions of our lives. Each of the chapters of this book focuses a different view on the discernment process. I like to think of these different viewpoints as comparable to turning a kaleidoscope. Remember your childhood joy in viewing the colored glass pieces through the turns of the kaleidoscope? Each turn showed a different pattern. As we work through the themes of the book, there will be a different glimpse on discernment questions like a turn of the kaleidoscope. I hope the shifting patterns will also bring joy and surprise like that childhood toy. We could imagine the various dimensions that we will explore as dynamic, each interacting with one another as we turn the kaleidoscope and examine both our primary life calling and our many other ways of engaging life at this time of transition.

The following diagram illustrates the aspects of this kaleidoscopic dynamism. When one aspect of life is examined, others are affected. Each person enters the process of discernment from one or more of these areas. The discerner may be primarily concerned with questions of physical locationWhere am I being called to live? Or with considerations for family membersHow can I be more available for needs of parents, children, or grandchildren? Considerations may spring most directly from questions of careerIs my present job adequate for the person I am becoming or is it important to think of making a shift; and if it is, how will I accomplish this change? Or perhaps this is a time for examining my primary relationship or renegotiating my life partnership. Maybe health or financial concerns have interrupted my life, and I'm beginning to examine my priorities. We'll be assuming that in whatever way each of us enters the discernment process, all of these aspects will be shifting and changing through this time of life transition.