A Bridge to Stillness
Lisa Heckaman serves alongside her husband Chris Heckaman, the lead pastor at Troy First United Methodist Church. Lisa’s life calling is to serve as a spiritual director—a trained spiritual companion who journeys alongside another as they prayerfully listen together for the Holy Spirit’s leading in life. Lisa also leads SoulCollage® retreats.
“It really created a framework that I found helpful for those who are in spiritual direction, and those in my church.”
When you spend your days holding sacred space for others, you develop a keen sense for what truly resonates—and what merely fills the silence. So when Lisa Heckaman, a spiritual director who walks alongside people in their most contemplative moments, opened the pages of Choosing Presence, her response was immediate: delight.
What she found was something rare—a resource grounded in Christian language that still left room for the deeper, wordless work of prayer. In the reflection that follows, Lisa shares how the practice became a bridge for the people she serves, and how it met the women of her church right where they were: hungry to stay present, to find what is within, and simply to be still.
Spiritual director Lisa Heckaman on how Choosing Presence gave the women of her church a language for prayer—and a way to be still.
by Lisa Heckaman
What first delighted and blessed me about reading Choosing Presence was that it felt like a bridge for so many of the people I work with. It is grounded in Christian language, yet it allowed the work to be prayer—to be that which is deeper, that is within. It’s not just about all the words we use.
In fact, with the group I held space for, it wasn’t just my directees but the women from our church who I found hungry for this. They wanted to know: How do we stay present? How do I be still?
