Embodied spirituality Archives

Spiritual Wayfinding

Spiritual Wayfinding, Deborah Gregory. InterVarsity Press | Formatio (ISBN: 9781514011966) 2026.

Summary: Thirty-three creative, walking meditations integrating mind, body, and spirit to discern God’s direction in our lives.

Life includes many seasons of trying to find our way. Choosing colleges or other vocational training. Finding a life partner. Discerning our calling and how that might shape career and job choices. Raising children. Understanding spiritual gifts and how we may best serve in a community. Deciding on a career change or move. Facing loss and aging. Life never stops posing the two questions Deborah Gregory asks in this book: Who am I? Where am I going?

Spanish poet Antonio Machado said, “We make the way by walking.” In other words, life is a pilgrimage, and we discover the trail blazes or way markers of God as we walk. Deborah Gregory is a spiritual director who meditated on the Ignatian Exercises as she took long walks. That is, until she fractured her ankle on an uneven sidewalk. However, the time of healing also became the time of discovery out of which she wrote these meditations. For example, it led to a deeper realization of how embodied discernment can help one find their way. Not only that, she took a deep dive into the science of walking, discovering its benefits for our whole person.

Another shaping influence upon this book is her neurodivergent daughter Alina. Neurodivergent people often differently experience the world sensorily and cognitively and have a unique form of “embodied wisdom.” That phrase, embodied wisdom, reflects a key theme of this book–that God often encounters us, helps us understand ourselves, and our direction in life through our bodies.

After introducing these ideas, the remainder of the book consists of thirty-three “walking meditations” organized in six parts. The first three parts focus on the “Who am I?” question, developing our awareness of our senses, emotions, and thoughts. Then the second three parts focus on “where am I going?,” under headings of “spiritual orienteering,” exercising discernment,” and “the pilgrim’s way.”

Each walking meditation consist of a short reading explaining the idea behind the walk. Then, on a single page, Gregory offers a scripture on which to meditate, walking meditation directions for before and as you walk, and then a rest and reflection question.

But what makes this guide both fun and stretching are the variety of creative ways of walking it incorporates. For example, under sensory awareness, it includes a “forest bathing walk.” To encourage exploring our emotions it includes a “stomp walk” followed by a “yuck walking” experience. Then “pattern spotting” invites us to note the fractal-like patterns in nature and discern the patterns of God’s working. And she even invites us, as we are able, to walk barefoot. And so much more!

She also offers suggestions for using this book. Some will “thru-hike” working through all thirty-three walks. Others will use them on retreats or focus on specific exercises. Then they can also be used by spiritual directors or others as a resource for individuals or groups.

I loved several things about this guide. One is that I walk daily and this gave me some new things to try. In addition, I delighted in the fun and creative ideas, some inspired by her neurodivergent daughter. Also, I appreciated the deep grounding of the meditations in the Ignatian Exercises. Finally, I appreciated the scientific insights into the benefits of walking.

In the interest of full disclosure, I know the author from the time she lived in the same city as I do. She was in a book group I hosted and also offered great advice on using social media. But one of the unexpected surprises of the book was to discover in the acknowledgements that she also knew my son, who shared with her his lifelong love of and knowledge of fractals! What fun!

Often, we consider spiritual disciplines as something practiced in a closet or quiet room, or at a desk. Gregory helps those of us who tend to live in our heads connect our embodied experience in the world with discerning God’s leading. Because of that, this book makes a unique contribution in spiritual formation literature.

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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher for review.

Cover image of "Faith Embodied" by Stephen Ko.

Faith Embodied, Stephen Ko. Zondervan Reflective (ISBN: 9780310151692), 2024.

Summary: Bringing physical and spiritual health together, a physician/pastor connects senses and bodily functions with our worship of God.

“Most of us treat our bodies as separate entities from our spirits, related in only minor ways–if at all.”

Stephen Ko opens his book with this observation. And he is qualified to do so. He is a physician who has worked as a pediatrician as well as a public health officer. And he is the senior pastor of New York Chinese Alliance Church, the largest Chinese Alliance in New York City. He’s seen the separation in his own life, divorcing devotions and exercise. We watch questionable material on Netflix and then say our nighttime prayers. We offer our lives as spiritual sacrifices in worship and then gorge on an unhealthy lunch.

Ko wants us to bring the two together. This involves making incarnational health choices and understanding how our embodied life is often an object lesson in living healthy spiritual lives. The book reflects this intention. First, Ko considers the wonder of our five senses of sight, touch, smell, taste, and hearing, what can go wrong with each of these senses, and how they connect to our spiritual lives. For example, our sense of smell can detect both perfume and poison. When we lose it, food tastes off. Fragrance, such as the burning of incense, are often a part of worship. Likewise, our lives are a fragrance of God and an aroma to the world.

Second, Ko considers five bodily functions: breathing, movement, creative endeavors, rest, and our hearts and their link to love. Similarly, he explores the wonders of our bodies in all these functions and ways these link to our spiritual lives. He writes about breathing as life and ways we use our breath in prayer and our voice to advocate for the vulnerable. He observes how essential movement is to our health, and how it fits us for spiritual service over the long run. And fundamental to the Great Commission is going!

Each chapter includes questions for personal or group reflection as well as references. The strength of this book is that it views our bodies as integral to spiritual life. The are neither irrelevant, nor evil distractions. My observation is that God’s people do not pay attention to physical health, except in our prayers for the ill. At the same time, others do follow the health guidance Ko offers and still suffer, sometimes chronic pain, and at others, acutely. Despite all, they get sick, sometimes desperately so. I recognize this is a large subject, perhaps beyond the scope of this work, But Ko might have acknowledged this, and perhaps touched on what it means to live an embodied life of faith under these circumstances.

Our bodies are not mere vehicles to convey our minds or souls around. Ko, as physician and pastor, brings together physical and spiritual health. He offers both precepts and examples for living fully toward God in our bodies. In so doing, we anticipate our resurrection hope, in which we will more fully than ever embody our worship and love for God.

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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher for review.