What the heck is Spiritual Direction?

Today I am co-presenting on "What the heck is Spiritual Direction?" The funny thing is I am at a loss.  How do I answer that question?  How would I describe it? I've been in training for 2 years and in Spiritual Direction for 3 years.  Answering that question should just roll off my tongue. 

Spiritual Direction is not therapy.  I know this.  Spiritual Direction is not someone directing you on your spiritual path.  Spiritual Direction is an opportunity to be vulnerable with another and with God.  It is about being honest about your relationship with God.  It gives you an opportunity to share your confusion or be angry.  It gives you an opportunity to be vulnderable.  I don't know if I could actually define it because Spiritual Direction has, at it's heart, a different definition for each person that experiences it.  Spiritual Direction is as God is to each person, a living breathing experience that is often dictated by ones own relationship with God and with themselves.  Spiritual Direction is only as good as the person is honest and open and vulnerable in front of God. 

Psalm 139 "Lord, you have searched me out and known; you know my sitting down and my rising up; you discern my thoughts from afar."  No matter what kind of game you think you play with God and your Spiritual Director, hiding the truth from yourself and God.  We can think we play games and not reveal our inner most secrets from our Spiritual Director and God.  How vulnerable and open we are in spiritual direction is really up to the directee.  If we lie or hide how we really feel or what's really going on in our relationship with God to our Spiritaul Director, God still knows and God still loves. 

Being vulnerable is about being honest with yourself and God.  Being vulnerable is about loosing all sense fear and being judged by another person and God.  I have this vision as I write from the series The Tudors.  The Queen is laying on the ground sobbing and begging God to fill her womb with a son.  A similar scene in Eat, Pray, Love when Elizabeth is laying on the bathroom floor sobbing and praying.  (As a side note, I was disappointed in how the movie portrayed that scene because in the book it was to me a truly beautiful scene and a pivotal point. Here is an excerpt:  Excerpt from Eat, Love Pray: The bathroom prayer

What the heck is Spiritual Direction then?  The directee decides that each and every time they walk in the door.