Jessica L. Morris

In the beginning of November 2024, I walked away from over 30 years working in the profession of higher education advancement. My intention when starting out in that field was to get a job that would allow me to continue partying and misbehaving as I had while I was in high school and college. Needless to say, I received a rude awakening when confronted by the realities of being a responsible adult.

Fortunately, at the age of 29, I was blessed to find my way to recovery from my main addictions – food and alcohol. After many years of searching within myself, I finally did the one thing I always knew, deep down inside, that I was meant to do – write a book. That book was Dewdrops: Morning Meditations to Cultivate Faith, Love, and Service, and was published in October 2014. Writing Dewdrops was the catapult to the next season of my life – attending seminary to learn more about the Higher Power (…who I choose to call God) that had saved me from myself.

While studying the academic side of the Bible and all things theology, I stumbled upon an introductory class called “Individual Spiritual Direction.” Almost immediately, I knew I was going to be adding a Spiritual Direction Certificate to my master’s degree. Doing so added some extra time to my studies, but I did not care, as studying and practicing spiritual direction had become more fulfilling than anything else in my life. In the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic, I successfully defended my master’s thesis: Personal Eschatology: The End of My World as I Know It, and completed all my practice hours and course requirements in spiritual direction. On May 9, 2020, with no pomp and circumstance, I became an official recipient of a master of arts in theological studies and a certificate in spiritual direction from Moravian Theological Seminary (Bethlehem, Pa.). The sense of accomplishment I felt upon receiving these academic “titles” is far from what I had expected. Instead of being proud of myself, I was overwhelmed with gratitude for the path God had chosen for me. Instead of feeling like I finally had all the answers, I knew more than ever before how much I did not know!

Now that I am no longer working full-time, I have the time to give to several writing projects I started during seminary but did not have the time to finish, while also providing spiritual direction on the side. I have been able to turn that previously mentioned master’s thesis into a book entitled, Higher Powered: One Woman’s Journey of Personal Eschatology.