Spiritual Direction

A 2025 report from the American Bible Society suggests that Bible use is rising—especially among young adults who, until recently, were among the least likely to open a Bible at all.

According to State of the Bible: USA 2025, the percentage of U.S. adults who read the Bible outside of church at least three times a year increased from 38% to 41% in the last year. That’s roughly 10 million more adults engaging with Scripture—marking the first increase in Bible use since 2021.

The sharpest rise appears among millennials, where reported Bible use jumped by 29% in a single year. Gen Z also showed noticeable movement. It’s a striking turnaround, especially considering that both groups have typically lagged behind older generations in religious activity. But the numbers may not be as clear-cut as they seem.

The study also found that Scripture engagement—a metric that factors in not just Bible reading, but how much Scripture influences someone’s choices, relationships, and worldview—rose from 11% to 15% among Gen Z, and from 12% to 17% among millennials.

The study defines Scripture engagement broadly, factoring in a range of self-reported behaviors and attitudes. It also relies on a survey sample of just 2,656 adults—a relatively small group to draw sweeping generational conclusions from, especially when measuring a spike as large as 29%.

Still, even if the numbers are more hopeful than definitive, they point to a growing spiritual curiosity among younger Americans. You can read the full report here.

Have you ever heard about "The Ant Death Spiral"? A fascinating NPR article describes this phenomenon. A particular species of army ant is utterly blind, so they get about by sniffing trails left by the ants in front of them. They, in turn, leave chemical trails of their own.

But, as the article notes, "the system works smoothly when everybody's going in a straight line in one direction. But when the lead ants start to loop, bad things can happen …. If the ant-in-front loops and intersects with its old trail, the whole crowd then turns in on itself and everybody gets caught in the endless circle." Another researcher wrote, “this circle is commonly known as a ‘death spiral’ because the ants might eventually die of exhaustion. It has been reproduced in laboratories and in ant colony simulations.”

Possible Preaching Angle:

Theodore C. Schneirla, the scientist who first observed this behavior, was quick to point out "that ants get stuck in ways that we humans never do." I'm not so sure Schneirla is right about that.

NFL lineman Jim Marshall was part of the revered “Purple People Eater” Minnesota Viking defensive line. For twenty seasons he never missed a game, earning a reputation for toughness and reliability. On October 25, 1964, playing against the San Francisco 49ers, Marshall recovered a fumble in the fourth quarter and ran untouched for sixty-six yards to the end zone.

After crossing the goal line, he tossed the ball away and began celebrating. Imagine his surprise when an opposing player trotted up, patted him on the back, and thanked him. Marshall suddenly realized that he was standing in the wrong end zone. He had just scored a safety, giving two points to the 49ers. The Vikings still won that day, thanks to eight total turnovers from the 49ers.

On the return flight to Minnesota, teammates ribbed Marshall, who said he simply got confused. “They kept telling me to get up in the cockpit and fly the plane. That way we'd end up in Hawaii instead of Minnesota.”

In football, as in much of life, it doesn’t matter that you’re doing something earnestly if you aren’t doing the right thing.

Carolyn Arends is a Canadian Christian musician, author, and speaker. In an issue of CT magazine, she writes:

Years ago, I toured as an opening act for Rich Mullins. I loved overhearing conversations at the autograph table; they often turned serious and urgent.

More than once, a fan asked Rich how to discern the will of God. Rich would listen and then offer an unexpected perspective. He’d say, “I don’t think finding God’s plan for you has to be complicated. God’s will is that you love him with all your heart and soul and mind, and also that you love your neighbor as yourself. Get busy with that, and then, if God wants you to do something unusual, he’ll take care of it. Say, for example, he wants you to go to Egypt.” Rich would pause for a moment before flashing his trademark grin. “If that’s the case, he’ll provide 11 jealous brothers, and they’ll sell you into slavery.”

When I find myself wrestling with life decisions, I think of Rich’s Egypt Principle. It makes me laugh, and then it asks me to get down to the serious business of determining which of my options allow me to best love God and other people.

Maybe that’s why Rich could claim that loving God and others takes care of most of our discernment questions. After all, the psalmist assures us that if we delight ourselves in the Lord, he will give us the desires of our heart (Ps. 37:4). God can be trusted to teach our hearts what to desire, and to lead us—by jealous brothers, burning bushes, or quiet inclinations—to the places where our own unique giftings meet the movements of his kingdom. There we find consolation and joy.

Watson Thornton was already serving as a missionary in Japan when he decided to join the Japan Evangelistic Band. He decided to travel to the town where the organization’s headquarters were located and to introduce himself to its leader. But just as he was about to get on the train, he felt a tug in his spirit that he took to be the leading of the Lord telling him to wait. He was puzzled but thought he should obey.

When the next train rolled into the station, Watson started to board but again felt he should wait. When the same thing happened with the third train, Watson began to feel foolish. Finally, the last train arrived, and once more Watson felt a check. “Don’t get on the train,” it seemed to say. Watson thought he had wasted most of the day for no apparent reason. Yet as he turned to go, he heard a voice call out his name. It was the mission leader he had intended to see. He came to ask whether Watson would consider joining the Japan Evangelistic Band. If Watson had ignored the impulse and boarded the train, he would have missed the meeting.

Possible Preaching Angle:

We can’t just live by our intuition, can we? We do see something like intuition at work in the lives of God’s people in the Bible. Paul tries to enter Asia and Bithynia but is “kept by the Holy Spirit” from doing so (Acts 16:6-7). We do not always get it right using either intuition or careful deliberation. God uses both to guide us. The art of being led by the Spirit is not a matter of waiting each moment for some mystical experience of divine direction. It is a matter of trusting God for the power to obey what he has already told you to do.

When was the last time you needed to use your cell phone as a flashlight, perhaps to look for something in the garage, read a menu at a darkly lit restaurant, or find something in the backyard at night? Why did you need it? Your answer probably includes some expression of dark or darkness.

As a sinner living with other sinners in a fallen world, you encounter darkness every day. While you may experience Instagram-worthy, sunny day picnic lunches, the reality is that life is more of a midnight walk through the woods. On any given day, you probably encounter more darkness than you do truth. So, to move forward without danger and get to where you are meant to go, you need something to light your way.

No passage gets at this need and God's provision better than Psalm 119:105: "Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path."

On Tuesday, May 10, 2022, a passenger with no flight experience called Air Traffic Control in Fort Pierce, Florida airport and said, “I’ve got a serious situation here. My pilot has gone incoherent. I have no idea how to fly the airplane.”

Around noon an air traffic controller named Robert Morgan was outside the tower reading a book on a break when his co-worker yelled, “There’s a passenger flying a plane that’s not a pilot and the pilot is incapacitated so they said you need to help them try and land the plane.”

Morgan was the man for the job. In addition to his 20 years in tower control, he is also a flight instructor with around 1,200 hours under his belt.

Morgan told reporters, “I knew the plane was flying, I just knew I had to keep him calm, point him to the runway and tell him how to reduce the power so he could descend to land.” Then Morgan proceeded to walk the first-time pilot step-by-step through the landing procedure for the Cessna Grand Caravan. Morgan even ran out to the tarmac and joyfully embraced his student.

Morgan said, “It felt really good to help somebody and he told me that he couldn’t wait to get home and hug his pregnant wife.”

Possible Preaching Angles:

1) Guidance; Mentoring - When disaster or crises arise, we need a wise mentor or guide to walk us through it. 2) Holy Spirit - The Holy Spirit is our flight controller who can guide us through the worst that life can throw at us (John 16:13; Rom. 8:14).

In a review of A.J. Swoboda’s book Dusty Roads, Leslie Fields writes:

We all have stories of getting lost. Here is one of mine: I crossed the Sahara one year on an expedition truck with 20 others, meandering from Cairo into the heart of Africa. We got lost often, once for three days, wandering farther and farther into the African bush with insufficient water, no GPS, and no people to point the way out. We were tense: we had to get off the dirt roads before the monsoon rains began. For most of those months, we were covered in dust, breathing through bandanas, praying we’d find the right path.

That’s one kind of “lost narrative.” Here’s another: As I write, I am on the brink of major life changes—some prayed for, a few drastic and unwelcome. I find myself stumbling, fearful, uncertain of these new snaking roads and unsure of God’s place in it all. Then I feel guilty. Where is my faith? Why am I not “counting it all joy” and skipping confidently into the sunny future?

A. J. Swoboda’s book, The Dusty Ones: Why Wandering Deepens Your Faith, came to my door at the right time. It is, of course, about the second kind of trek: our pilgrimage toward the city of God, with its painful desert crossings and wanderings.

We all want a life marked by straight paths, smooth roads, and victorious arrivals. But as Swoboda argues, wandering is “an inescapable theme of the Christian experience,” even if the church has often minimized its inevitable role in every pilgrim’s progress.

Returning to my own story, our expedition truck arrived in Mombasa five months later, nearly on schedule. We beat the monsoon rains, but the trip was not just about getting there. Every village, waterhole, and sandpit along the way had purpose and value. So it is with our lives. Swoboda reminds us that “Christian spirituality is a slow train that must inevitably stop at every little Podunk town in our life—nothing can be skipped over.”

The popular Pursuit of Wonder YouTube channel (almost two million subscribers) gives an excellent concise insight on Existentialism. One segment is noteworthy:

Now more than ever we are exposed to a plethora of ideas about life. The Internet has made it so we can consume a seemingly unending amount of content on the topic of living most effectively. However, simultaneously, this access to information has also allowed the consumer to realize just how conflicting most ideas are.

In the West, the popularity of traditional religion (has) reduced as a result. (And) for many, the increasing access to information has revealed that the world is basically without any discernible truth, and most ideas about how to live are inconclusive and unreliable. It is fair to speculate that this could be a major contributing factor to the modern world's increasing levels of anxiety, cynicism, and disillusion.

Choosing between conflicting ideas of how to live has always been an issue for the individual. But in the modern world, where conflicting ideas are constantly smacking us in the face, we can often find ourselves failing in our attempt to find footing in this reality.

At birth it's as if we are all given a slab of clay. We get to choose what to mold it into. However, … there is no right or wrong way to mold the clay. Rather there are endless ways, all equally absurd, all equally meaningless.

You can watch the video here.

It's significant that in Scripture, wisdom is often associated with a path. Are you going in the right direction? Are you veering off the path? Do you know where you are on the map? What's your compass? At the end of the day, wisdom is less about information than orienta­tion. All the geographic data points in the world are useless if we have no sense of north.

All of us wander in whichever nomadic direction our hearts choose, until we submit to the authority of God's good compass. He alone illuminates the path of wisdom. The fool says in his heart, "There is no God" (Ps. 14:1), and thus wanders aimlessly through the desert. The wise man, by contrast, lives a radically God-centered life.

Tozer puts it this way:

As the sailor locates his position on the sea by "shooting" the sun, so we may get our moral bearings by looking at God. We must begin with God. We are right when and only when we stand in a right position relative to God, and we are wrong so far and so long as we stand in any other position.

Possible Preaching Angle:

There is much to look at in life. Our eyes flutter back and forth faster than they can properly process. Wisdom is focusing our gaze on God: looking to him, praying to him, zealously seeking after him. The Psalms constantly reinforce this: “My eyes are ever on the Lord” (Ps. 25:15. Ps. 141:8).

Singer-song-writer Sandra McCracken writes in an issue of CT magazine:

I live in an old house. Along with the charms of age, this old house has some surprises. One of these is the angle of the top three stairs leading to the bedrooms. One stair is too short, while the next one is too deep. It was a creative renovation solution from a previous owner who finished the attic, but it takes some getting used to.

When I need to take the stairs at night, I’m careful to grasp both handrails. Before bed the other week, my husband was plotting how he might install some subtle lighting on those tricky stairs for safety. While I could have just learned to deal with our dark hallway and the jagged steps, I was moved by his consideration of such a small thing.

In a similar way, God’s light on our path is a demonstration of his loving consideration for us. The often-memorized John 3:16–19, “For God so loved the world …” goes on to say that “God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. ... Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light.” Before God broke in, we were in darkness. But he did not leave us in darkness. “He will not let your foot slip” (Ps. 121:3).

God’s marvelous light invites, illuminates, and sends us out (John 3:21; 1 Pet. 2:9). We, whom the Spirit lights, give light to each other and to the world, starting with the smallest things, like a light on the stairs.

49-year-old German brewery worker Erwin Kreuz blew his life savings on a once-in-a-lifetime birthday trip to San Francisco. He’d seen it on TV, and he wanted to visit the Wild West. As the flight from Frankfurt stopped to refuel in Bangor, Maine, before continuing on to California, an air stewardess who had finished her shift told Kreuz to “have a nice time in San Francisco.” Her choice of words would change Kreuz’s life.

Kreuz, who typically enjoyed drinking 17 beers a day, was a little groggy, and on hearing this, got off the plane, jumped in a cab and asked the driver to take him to the city. The cab dropped Kreuz at a hotel in downtown Bangor and he found a tavern to quench his almighty thirst. He wandered Bangor for three days enjoying the sights and sounds that Maine had to offer. Unfortunately, Kreuz still thought he was in San Francisco.

Kreuz was certain he was in San Francisco, and he didn’t stop believing that for three very strange days. At one point Kreuz was reassured by the sight of two Chinese restaurants in the town, something he knew was in San Francisco from the movies. After much wandering, Kreuz decided he must be in a Bay Area suburb, so he hailed a taxi and asked the driver to take him to downtown San Francisco. The driver sped away as though Kreuz was crazy.

Kreuz returned to the tavern and tried to get some help from a waitress. The language barrier was too great, so she put him in contact with Gertrude Romine who spoke German. Romine and her family took Kreuz into their home, and word spread of the lost tourist, first to the Bangor Daily News, then nationally, then the world.

Hearing of his story, The San Francisco Examiner paid for Kreuz to fly out to his initial destination. When there, he was treated like a visiting dignitary. Kreuz was welcomed by the mayor, who presented him with a proclamation declaring that San Francisco does, in fact, exist.

Kreuz was soon due back at work at the brewery and, after four days in San Francisco, boarded a flight back home holding a “Please let me off in Frankfurt” sign.

Possible Preaching Angle:

Confusion; Eternity; Heaven; Lostness – This humorous story also has a sobering application for all who go through life assuming that at the end of life’s journey they will find themselves in heaven, only to discover that they are greatly mistaken. “There is a way which seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death” (Prov. 14:12; 16:25).

While Sean Connery may have had many memorable roles, the actor also rejected more than a handful of now-iconic parts. Perhaps most famously, Connery turned down the part of Gandalf in Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings trilogy.

Connery was the director's first choice for the role, which would have seen the actor travel to New Zealand to portray the wizard. The producers of the fantasy series were so desperate to get Connery on board that they offered him upwards of $30 million, plus 15 percent of the box-office take (which would have been an additional $447 million for the actor). Yet, the former James Bond didn't budge, and Ian McKellen went on to become Gandalf.

Years later, Connery discussed the Lord of the Rings, revealing that he simply didn't understand the series. He said, “I read the book. I read the script. I saw the movie. I still don't understand it.”

Possible Preaching Angle:

We don’t need to completely understand the “script” to be part of God’s story. Suffice to know the Author can be trusted. Sometimes you are in the middle of your life story and it seems to be leading to disaster. At that point you trust the Author. We know it ends well!

Science writer Michael Bond is a bit of an expert in the traumatic subject of lostness. He writes that being lost is a fear that runs deep in our psyche and culture:

Children lost in the woods is a common a motif in modern fairy tales and in ancient mythology. Usually in fiction there is some kind of redemption: Snow White is rescued by dwarfs and even Hansel and Gretel, facing certain doom in the gingerbread house, find their way home. Reality is often more grim: During the 18th and 19th centuries, getting lost was one of the most common causes of death among the children of European settlers in the North American wilderness.

Science researcher Dr. Jan Souman used GPS monitors to track numerous volunteers as they tried to walk in a straight line without tech through Germany’s Bienwald forest and the Sahara Desert. When clouds obstructed the sun errors quickly accumulated, small deviations became large ones, and they ended up walking in circles. With no external cues to help them, people will not travel more than around 100 meters from their starting position, regardless of how long they walk for. This says a lot about our spatial system and what it requires to anchor us to our surroundings.

In the absence of landmarks and boundaries, our head-direction cells can’t compute direction and distance, and leave us flailing in space. Above all pay careful attention … when you go into the woods.

In the book The Cross and the Switchblade, Pastor David Wilkerson mentions the time he was going through a period of restlessness in his spirit. Although his ministry was bringing good results, Wilkerson called this period a time of “spiritual discontent.”

He therefore made a decision to give up the two hours he spent watching television daily before bedtime, replacing it with prayer. As a result of that decision, Pastor Wilkerson decided to sell his television and devoted the two hours daily for prayer.

Initially, after struggling somewhat through the two hours of daily prayer, he began to gradually feel blessed by this time spent with the Lord. One evening, during the prayer time, Pastor Wilkerson was strongly led to open a copy of a LIFE magazine on his desk. As he did so, his eyes fell upon a story of seven teenage boys, (particularly the despairing eyes of one boy), who were facing trial for murder in New York City.

The Lord then prompted him strongly to travel to New York immediately to help the teenage boys. After some hesitation, in faith and obedience he stepped into an unknown future that turned out to be the beginning of a powerful ministry of bringing the gospel to troubled teenagers.

Possible Preaching Angle:

Over the years, the work of the ministry Teen Challenge has ministered effectively to thousands of youth in need of God's saving grace. The journey began however, through clear guidance received during a time of committed prayer. God can give us guidance and help too in prayer.

In 1943, a young pastor was offered the opportunity to take over a popular Gospel Radio program called Songs in the Night. Since the cost of keeping the program on air was rather high, the pastor, who had a large vision to reach souls with the gospel, told his board that he would be willing to forgo part of his salary to help defray the costs involved. The suggestion was eventually accepted by the board.

The young pastor then approached a well-known Gospel singer, requesting him to sing and lead the choir on the program. After initially trying to back out, the singer eventually agreed to help out. That decision would change the course of his life and ministry forever! He later said, “It was the beginning – the humble beginning – of an unbelievable journey…It was exciting to be a part of something wonderful unfolding”.

The Gospel singer was George Beverly Shea and the young pastor’s name was Billy Graham.

Possible Preaching Angles: Similarly, when we take decisions that seek to glorify God, He will lead us to opportunities and open doors that only He can bring about. The God- honoring decisions we take will surely determine our destiny.

An aggressive Google Maps driving direction led to dozens of drivers getting stuck in mud on the way to Denver International Airport. A large crash in Aurora, Colorado caused GPS applications like Google Maps to search for a quicker route to the airport.

Driver Connie Monsees told reporters that she and about 100 other drivers seemed to be following smartphone directions onto a dirt road. Unbeknownst to the mapping program—or the drivers—the private dirt road was impassible after recent heavy rainfall. Most of the motorists became stuck behind a few cars that had become bogged down in mud.

Monsees said, “My thought was, 'Well there are all these other cars in front of me so it must be OK.' So, I just continued.” Fortunately, those with all-wheel drive vehicles were able to get through. Monsees says she picked up a few stranded motorists and delivered them to the airport.

Denver 7 traffic anchor Jayson Luber believes people are becoming too dependent on smart phones and GPS apps instead of maps. He said, “You are driving. Google Maps is not driving. Google Maps is not perfect. You need to know where you are going and, if it does not look like that’s where you should be going, turn around and try again.”

The picture William Damon paints with his groundbreaking book The Path to Purpose: Helping Our Children Find Their Calling in Life provides a wake-up call. His research shows that almost 25 percent of US youth ages 12 to 22 are “rudderless.” They have little to no direction in life and are at serious risk of never fulfilling their potential. Another 25 percent have purposeful goals but have taken few if any steps toward those goals. Approximately 31 percent have actively tried several purposeful pursuits without knowing why they are doing so or whether they’ll continue with these interests in the future. Only 20 percent have a clear vision of what they want to accomplish in life and why and have realistic plans.

Have you made a gut decision? Or have you experienced a gut check moment? Have you ever made a decision going with your gut? According to reporting from ABC News’ Lucille Tang, our abilities to think and employ solid reasoning are owed at least in part to the health of our digestive tract. We don’t normally think of digestion in these terms, but there’s a body of evidence to support the idea.

Some scientists call the 100 trillion bacteria and 100 million nerve endings in our gastrointestinal tract our second brain. This “brain” communicates with an interface known as the gut-brain axis, which explains why gut health can improve conditions like Alzheimer’s or depression. People often associate chemicals like serotonin with the brain, but most of our body’s serotonin, our sleep cycles and our appetite, is found in the gut.

On the flip side, other studies have shown a relationship between imbalances in gut bacteria and a rise in neuroimmune and neuroinflammatory diseases. But the good news is that there are established practices that we can do to promote gut health. If the conventional wisdom is right, you may not exactly be what you eat, but more what or how you digest.

Possible Preaching Angle:

Our ability to think correctly and make good decisions is also greatly influenced by a healthy relationship with our internal guide (Rom. 8:14) and teacher (1 Jn. 2:20, 27) the indwelling Holy Spirit who is vital for healthy Christian living (Eph. 4:30).

Wendell Berry writes in his book “Jayber Crow”:

Often I have not known where I was going until I was already there. I have had my share of desires and goals, but my life has come to me or I have gone to it mainly by way of mistakes and surprises. Often I have received better than I deserved. Often my faintest hopes have rested on bad mistakes. I am an ignorant pilgrim, crossing a dark valley. And yet for a long time, looking back, I have been unable to shake off the feeling that I have been led – make of that what you will.