“Discernment as a Spiritual Practice”

         I have been reading The Discerning Heart, by Wilkie and Noreen Cannon Au. It’s a beautiful book exploring the work of discernment, how Christians understand, listen to, and heed God’s will for our lives. The authors give great examples of learning to listen to our hearts, how to listen in prayer, learning to listen to our faith history, our dreams, and our bodies in our work of making decisions. This is tricky work. If you’re like me, you wrestle with the question, how do I distinguish God’s guidance in my life as I make choices from what may simply be fatigue or grief or boredom? How do we know we’re doing what is right?

         Author and professor, Barbara Brown Taylor writes about a dark time in her life when she was in need of a word from God, in need of direction. She prayed and prayed and without an answer became angrier and angrier and then she went to the highest place she could find and prayed some more. She finally ran out of words and began to sing, a kind of mournful plainsong change. She finally ran out of that; and after that she had her answer. It was nothing specific, she explained, even as she was hoping for a fortune cookie answer telling her exactly what to do, like take the next boat to Samoa and go and dig latrines. But there was none of that.

         “What I got,” she writes, “was the deep conviction that I was loved and what I was called to do was to love back in whatever way that allowed me to live the best and most, as a housewife and mother, as a nuclear physicist or gas station attendant or an ordained minister. The specifics don’t seem to matter to God, what matters is my relationships and my love in them and specifically my relationship with God.”

         These words from Dr. Brown Taylor have brought me comfort since the first time I read them. She seems to agree with St. Augustine who said something similar centuries ago when he wrote, “Love and do what you will.”

         Discernment is a spiritual practice, attuning our hearts and minds and spirits back to the leading of God. The ways we make decisions speak to how well we are able to understand what God seeks in our lives and according to these writers and to authors Wilkie and Noreen Cannon Au, what God seeks is to be in relationship with us, to strengthen our bonds in love with God, with ourselves, and with each other. Discernment is the work of seeking love.

         As you move through this week in Lent, trying to listen to the voice of God, trying to discern what is right for you in this season, listen to love. Listen to what is calling you to love, love God, love your neighbor, love your own distinct and beautiful life; if you follow this practice of living in love, trust me, whatever choice you make will be the right one.

You are the light of the world!

Warmly,

Lynne