Even though we can’t always understand the divine Mystery at the heart of things, we can trust it. When we take the radical leap of faith, we find our true home, as reflected in the final stanza of the familiar hymn by Isaac Watts, “My Shepherd Will Supply My Need”:
The sure provisions of my God attend me all my days;
O may thy house be my abode and all my work be praise.
There would I find a settled rest, while others go and come;
No more a stranger, nor a guest, but like a child at home.
When we know how much God cherishes us, love finds its way into the pulse of our lives and moves us into the world with compassion.
Reflect: What does it mean to you to trust God? Pray that your understanding of that reality will grow and deepen so that you feel like a child in a nurturing home.
“Now to him who by the power at work within us is able to accomplish
abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine. . . . ”
—EPHESIANS 3:20
BREATH PRAYER
Guiding Spirit, . . . show me the way.
FEBRUARY 1 • A Tricky Business
What should I do with my life? What is God’s will for me? Should I take that job or not? Read to the kids or do the laundry? No matter what personal phrases we use, the question of discernment frequently visits all of us—dressed in all sorts of clothes. Whether our decisions are trivial or weighty, making them is an ever-present endeavor.
Any thinking person embarks on a discussion of discernment with fear and trembling and, I hope, some genuine humility. All we have to do is check the history books or the daily newspaper to see some horrendous behaviors committed under the banner of “God told me to . . .” or “I just felt I should do it!” The territory of discernment is filled with uncertainty and devoid of easy formulas.
I’ve heard countless sermons telling me that the way to make good decisions is to find out God’s will and do it. The speaker would usually emphasize the amount of courage and self-sacrifice necessary to obey. As a young person, I believed that God’s will for my life would most likely be something terribly costly—that my life as I wanted it or presently knew it would be over. Obeying God carried all sorts of negative baggage. I recall many teachings about obedience and few suggestions about how to listen for the authentic voice of God.
So how do we open ourselves to the influence of the Holy Spirit? To move from merely making decisions to living in the divine flow involves the development of our listening skills. When we learn to listen with the ears of the heart, we can take the next small step forward. This month, we’ll open the door to deeper discernment.
Reflect: How do you presently listen for God’s still small voice? What seems to stand in the way of deeper listening? Today, pay attention to how you make decisions, asking God to enter your personal process of discernment.
FEBRUARY 2 • Some Measuring Sticks
Though no magic formula for discernment exists, the Christian tradition offers some time-tested tools to guide the process. The Wesleyan quadrilateral urges us to consider an issue or question in light of four areas: scripture, tradition, reason, and experience—and not to trust only one area as a single measuring stick. The truth often suffers when we don’t respect the balance offered by employing all four areas.
Scripture: Holy texts inspire and guide us, but verses taken out of context have often led us to poor judgment and violence. We can hold any number of positions on an issue and “prove” it with biblical texts, giving us reasons to exclude folks, wage wars, and spread all manner of divisiveness in the name of God. For this reason, reliable spiritual leaders encourage choices out of the spirit of the law, rather than the letter of the law. Is the action or position loving? Does it lead to wholeness? Does it expand the heart? Does it represent our highest values? Does it encourage community?
Tradition: We reap enormous benefits from the experience of those who have gone before us. Which traditions support the way of love? How does the wisdom of the faith community help us discern? We speak of the priesthood of believers. We attend church; we study the lives of the saints, all in an effort to discern the will of God in concert with others who can hold us accountable.
Reason: In discerning God’s will, we don’t have to check our brains at the door. We need intellectual scrutiny rather than naive thinking. The Spirit often guides us through thought processes.
Experience: Here the rubber meets the road. How does my experience compare with what I’ve learned from scripture, tradition, and reason? Because if my experience doesn’t resonate with these other approaches, then it remains merely a good idea, something that we ought to do, should do, talk incessantly about doing but never actually experience in our everyday lives. We can attend Bible classes, study the words of our elders, and think issues to death—all worthy pursuits—but unless we experience the divine voice at our own “center of consent,” we rarely live out our intentions in daily life.
Reflect: Take time today to consider your own measuring stick for discernment. In what ways do scripture, tradition, reason, and experience act as signposts in your search for truth? How might you include them in a way that leads to balance?
FEBRUARY 3 • Deprogramming
A woman gazed out her kitchen window one morning and remarked to her husband, “Look at that laundry on the neighbor’s clothesline. It isn’t clean—looks like she needs some new detergent!” She continued with the same commentary day after day. “Would you look at those dingy clothes on the line? Someone needs to teach her how to do the wash!” After a week or so, the woman was surprised to see a clothesline full of bright, clean garments and remarked, “Well, looks like she finally learned how to do her laundry properly!” Her husband smiled and replied, “I cleaned our windows this morning.”
The point is obvious—it matters which lens we look through as we make judgments. So, as we begin delving into our own process of discernment, we may need to “clean the window.” Some of our own distortions may come from faulty assumptions that cloud our vision.
Most of us have been both formed and de-formed by our religious traditions, making it wise to do a little deprogramming. Those who grew up with an image of God as punitive and demanding may have regarded divine guidance as counsel to dread. It’s difficult to trust someone you fear.
Do we dare to believe with the writer of Ephesians 3:20 that God’s will for us is “far more than all we can ask or imagine”? We yearn for the abundant life that the scriptures promise, but we usually want what we want! In other words, we’ll gladly sign on to the abundance, but we would like a photo of it before we do! We crave control.
Reflect: Breathe deeply, trusting that God’s definition of abundance is indeed more than you can imagine. Let go of preconceived notions so that you can be open to God’s grace.
FEBRUARY 4 • Trusting Your Feelings
Our feelings are a powerful creation—a kind of inner compass. Surely they are part of the avenue of guidance and a priceless gift from the One who formed us as human beings. However, if we were taught to ignore or diminish our feelings, then that teaching needs to be deprogrammed if we are to be open to divine leading.
Feelings themselves are neither bad nor good, but they point to an issue that requires our attention.