Are you in a wilderness season of the heart?

You may find that you resonate with a few of the sentiments below.  

After all this time of being God’s faithful servant, I want to be God’s friend, too. How can I experience a deeper friendship with God?

I’ve been in a season of waiting for so long. Why isn’t anything changing? Doesn’t God care about me?

I used to love the Bible, but it feels dry to me now. How can I recover the love I once had for the Word of God?

How can I lean into God’s love for me, letting go of the religious guilt, fear, and shame of my past?

My life feels like a wilderness: disorienting, stuck, lost in a prayer rut, and uncertain where God is in my singleness/joblessness/deconstruction of my faith. I need to process those feelings with someone in prayer.

Friend, you do not have to make this journey alone.

Perhaps like you, I understand how hard it is to say you believe God loves you but to have deep doubts about that.

Perhaps like you, I experienced a deep deconstruction of my faith and wondered how much of it I could cling to anymore.

And, perhaps like you, I have known seasons where God felt far away.

My own wilderness experiences of the heart have taught me this—in the struggle is the formation.

God’s desire for us all is that we experience the process of being conformed to the image of Christ for the sake of others.

What is Spiritual Direction?

I’m glad you asked!

From the earliest days of the Church, God has used spiritual friendship as a means of providing comfort during seasons of personal upheaval. Spiritual friendship, sometimes called spiritual direction, is different from traditional counseling, or even pastoral counseling. God is the true director, and the spiritual director helps a person receiving spiritual direction pay more careful attention to God’s presence and activity in his/her life through prayer presence, attentive listening, and gently offered questions.  

In short, spiritual direction is a practice where one friend asks another friend the “God questions.”

While spiritual direction emerged centuries ago, Christians today are beginning to retrieve this historic and sacred practice, recognizing its relevance for everyday life with God.

Here are a few kind words others have offered about my spiritual direction with them:

“The spiritual direction we did together came at such an important junction in my life…it’s been hard to find a church home for me. Having a place to meet out loud and listen for what God is doing in my life I think carried me through one of the hardest seasons that I faced. As an extrovert, spiritual direction is fantastic—I grew up in a church tradition that really emphasize the only way to be a Christian is read your Bible for yourself every day. And I’ve always struggled with that habit, and I’ve enjoyed exploring different kinds of spiritual practices. Spiritual direction is like contemplative spirituality for extroverts, getting to do contemplative spirituality together was powerful for me. Feeling seen and known, not just by Noel as a spiritual director and friend, but Noel communicating, helping me to notice God’s presence in a time when God felt very absent from my life.”

“Noel gives the gift of presence to her directees! She understands the relationship between silence and sharing and serves others through listening. It has been a joy to participate in direction with her.”

Buy Spiritual Direction Sessions

All spiritual direction sessions cost $40 and last 45 minutes. You can make a purchase using Noel’s Venmo account, @Noel-ForliniBurt. Include “One Session” in the memo line. Please email Noel at jnforlin@samford.edu to check her availability before you purchase a session. If you purchase one session at a time online, please make a payment at least twelve hours prior to the session.

You can also receive a discount by purchasing a package of four sessions for $140. Clients who purchase a four-session package must meet with Noel once every one to two weeks. All four sessions must take place within a 12-week timeframe. You can purchase the four-session package through Noel’s Venmo account, @Noel-ForliniBurt. Include “Four Sessions” in the memo line.

If this is your first time receiving spiritual direction, I strongly advise a brief 15-minute call just to get acclimated prior to the first meeting. Clients can email Noel at jnforlin@samford.edu to set up a call.