Three men — Sherman Bradley in Ohio, Paul Kimball in South Dakota, and Jason Lee in Taiwan — each arrived at a Canyon Pathways retreat running on fumes. Paul came ready to serve. Jason came in his own words like 'a plane on fire trying to land with no pilot,' carrying two miscarriages, full-time seminary, full-time ministry, and two kids under three. Sherman came to South Dakota after being promised there would be no snow — and got 20 inches in a day, a power outage, a bobcat rescue up to the chalet, and a word from God he absolutely did not want. The word was 'rest.' He rejected it. It took him two more retreats and years of spiritual direction to understand why that refusal was itself the thing that needed to be seen.
In this episode, the three men unpack what spiritual direction actually is — not therapy, not coaching, not mentorship, not a place where someone tells you what God is saying and you had better listen. More like a fishing guide who knows the lake but says, 'Where do you want to go? Let's discover it together.' They describe the 10-session post-retreat journey Canyon Pathways is now making available to every man who has been through a retreat, walk through the arc from identifying elder-brother patterns to reclaiming sonship to integrating that identity into every part of daily life, and address directly the man whose arms are still folded — the one who says he doesn't 'do that feeling stuff.'
Sherman Bradley, Paul Kimball, and Jason Lee are all now training as spiritual directors and are available to walk with Canyon Pathways brothers in this next phase. If you've been to a retreat and felt the pull to go deeper, this is your invitation. Reach out through the Canyon Pathways website or contact Luke Smith to learn more.
Key takeaways
- Spiritual direction is not therapy, mentorship, coaching, or a place where someone tells you what God is saying — it is a trusted companion listening with you and for you as you bring your life before the Father together (Jason Lee, 00:23:47–00:26:01).
- The elder-brother pattern — striving, isolation, performance, distance from the Father — shows up in marriages, work, parenting, and secret addictions; the first four sessions of the 10-session journey are specifically designed to give men language to name where this pattern lives in their lives (Jason Lee, 00:53:49–00:56:04).
- Investment in spiritual direction is not an expense: when you see yourself as a son, you are not spending — you are receiving what you have already inherited (Sherman Bradley, 00:51:20–00:52:04).
- Reentry after a retreat gets bumpy — and spiritual direction is the designed next step to keep the sonship journey alive when daily life rushes back in (Jason Lee, 00:44:31–00:45:11).
- Canyon Pathways is launching a 10-session spiritual direction journey led by Sherman Bradley, Paul Kimball, and Jason Lee, available remotely and in person for men who have been through a retreat (00:41:54–01:00:30).
Resources
Produced by the team at Maroon Harpoon LTD. Thank you to our donors who make this venture possible — and thank you, friend, for being part of this Canyon Pathways community as we together live like sons and lead like fathers.
