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The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing.  He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters, he refreshes my soul.  He guides me along the right paths for his name’s sake.  Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.  - Psalm 23

Would you like to take the journey of spiritual transformation with a trained Spiritual Director?  I provide spiritual care and comfort as you survey the landscape of your soul and move from the circumference of life to the center of God’s love and divine embrace.  

Soul – Our Mind, Emotions, and Will 

Our soul, though unseen, is just as real as our body.  With our souls, we experience things in the psychological realm.  Our soul is composed of our mind, emotions, and will.  Our mind enables us to think, reason, consider, remember, and wonder; our emotions enable us to have feelings like happiness, sorrow, anger, relief, and compassion; and our will allows us to choose and make decisions.  Our soul determines our personality and who we are within.   

Circumference 2 Center 

God desires to meet us all at the center.  He wants to draw us away from the circumference of life, which keeps us trapped or stuck in busyness, compulsiveness, success, perfectionism, fear, etc., and instead calls us to draw close to Him, into the center where He meets us in relationship with the Trinity in the Divine dance.  The circumference is us doing, and the center is us being--being with the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit and allowing him to embrace us with His love.  At the center is the stillness, quiet, breath, love, joy, peace, hope, and freedom that leads to us yielding to the Divine dance of relationship with the Trinity.  He wants to dance with you in the center.   

Can you let go of the circumference and come to the center to dance with God and be embraced by Him moment by moment, day by day?  He wants to lead you and be the leader in the dance of your life, and the question He is asking is, “Are you willing to let me lead?” So, are you willing to let go of the safety and security of the circumference and come to the center where ultimate surrender is found?  He is calling you to a deeper place of freedom out of the darkness of your soul.  Will you take the journey down into the center?   

There are two ways to journey to the center.  One way is through prayer and meditation, while the other is through hardship, suffering and pain.  Pain will take you to the center faster than you can blink, but so will spiritual practices like prayer, praise, and sitting in the stillness to listen for God’s voice.  While sitting in silence, it is easy to feel the darkness of our souls, which can be hard to prioritize for most unless the pain (physical, emotional, or spiritual) is intense enough.  What if you took the journey to start the practice of sitting with a Spiritual Director before the pain was too intense?  Having a soul friend to listen to and navigate with you as you survey the landscape of your soul is one way you can begin the journey of spiritual growth.    

Soul transformation is not a destination but rather a process.  Once entered, it is a journey that can begin to change how you view and experience life.  Our souls will continually be under deconstruction and reconstruction until the day we die, but how you live life on this Earth is your choice.  Do you want to survive or thrive?  Do you want to hold onto control or let go?  Do you want to lead with fear or leap with faith?  Do you want to learn to listen to God’s voice, lean into your calling, and linger in His presence?   

One morning, I was running around the circumference of a golf resort in the desert of California.  It was dry, brown, dusty, ugly, pokey with cacti, quiet, lifeless, and nothing beautiful was in sight as far as my eye could see.  I whispered a prayer and listened for a response.  Psalm 23 floated into my thoughts.  As I started to recite the verses from memory, which I often do while running: The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing.  He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters, he refreshes my soul.  He guides me along the right paths for his name’s sake.  Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me. 

As I spoke Psalm 23:3 out loud, “He guides me along the right paths for his name sake,” I felt the urge to lean into a left turn onto a curved narrow pathway that suddenly appeared.  The winding path led down to the center of a plush golf course.  The course was not visible from the circumference at all.  It wasn’t until I followed the path and went down into the center that I suddenly saw the lush green pastures, quiet waters, birds bathing, bunnies hopping, and flowers blooming.  I heard the wildlife chirping and felt the refreshing of my soul as I continued to audibly recite Psalm 23: “...he leads me beside quiet waters, he refreshes my soul.” Sensing the presence of God at the center of this golf course, I lingered on the pathway--enjoying the green pastures, the quiet waters, the stillness of the morning--and I allowed my soul to be refreshed for His namesake.  During my run, the Spirit of God called me to come close to receive His comfort: “For you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.”   

Day by day and moment by moment, there is an invitation to the center if we are willing to listen for the still and quiet voice calling us from the circumference of our life.  If we are eager to take the journey and lean into the paths, He is calling us onto, and if we are willing to linger in His presence, He will meet us at the center where we can see, hear, smell, taste, and feel His divine presence longing to comfort, care, and transform our souls.   - Rebekah Cancelosi