Selling River Water

One of my all-time favorite quotes from Father Anthony de Mello was, to the effect, a definition of a spiritual director:

One who sits by the riverside selling river water.

When I have quoted it before I have been taken as being sarcastic or attempting to be funny. I actually take the idea quite seriously. In the end a true spiritual director does nothing more than show people what is already readily available to them. There is a river, filled with water to overflowing that we can stand next to and starve to death. But the spiritual director, by "selling it" makes one aware of it so they can continue to ladle it up and enjoy it day in a day out. Or in other words it is helping people find their way, whatever and wherever it might be.

I have often used that as my own mission statement. I want to sell river water. I want to bring people to the shore and say here it is, jump in, stick your little toe in, take a drink, be refreshed. Whatever you are ready to do. But here it is. What a joyful life that has given me.

I remember doing it a number of times in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area of northern Minnesota as a group of 15 - 17 year olds splashed and dove and jumped in a stream on an island after they discovered the beavers making a home next to our campsite.

I did it on mission trips to Trinidad, Costa Rica, New York City, and the Rosebud Reservation.

I did it for years as a camp director allowing the campers to build community and find the Spirit.

I thought of it again this past weekend. I was the co-director of a Bluegrass Jam Camp at our church's facility in central Wisconsin. Some of the participants were accomplished musicians. Others were just beginners. Here we introduced them to the joys of jamming bluegrass music, playing music with others, and having a great time.

These were adults. Not youth campers. These were adults coming to a river bank and discovering that the water is great.

I guess one can be a spiritual director- even with a bluegrass camp.