Reading DISCERNMENT by Henri Nouwen, a providential discovery in Kindle Unlimited, the section Discernment in Community was the catalyst for this post.
Looking through the lens of discernment provides opportunity for a soul-searching examination of today’s church as a community of discernment.
What follows are excerpts from Discernment in Community:
We ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of God’s will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding so that you may lead lives worthy of the Lord. —Colossians 1:9–10 NRSV
Discernment is a spiritual understanding and an experiential knowledge of how God is active in daily life that is acquired through disciplined spiritual practice. Discernment is faithful living and listening to God’s love and direction so that we can fulfill our individual calling and shared mission.
The purpose of discernment is to know God’s will, that is, to find, accept, and affirm the unique way in which God’s love is manifest in our life.
While discernment begins in solitude, individual seekers of God always come together in community, for the Spirit gathers all believers into one body for accountability and mutual support. A person honestly seeking to know God’s will and way will choose to be in community.
Living together in community:
WE proclaim that love is stronger than fear, that joy is deeper than sorrow, that unity is more real than division, and that life is stronger than death.
WE are invited to make regular choices that radically contradict the powers and principalities of our world.
Living in community offers concrete ways to make choices that support discernment—deep listening for the way and will of God.
The choices we face often are quite specific and require thoughtful conversation around basic questions that confront our individual and collective motives and agendas:
- Are we squandering our time or seizing time as a constant opportunity to discover more about ourselves, our neighbors, and our God?
- Are we structuring our days to be distracted and entertained, or to let our hearts grow more mature and strong?
- Are we responding to our inner fears and pains by ignoring them, or do we choose to face them and live into and through our fears and pains with the help of others who accompany us?
- Are we talking or praying, worrying or giving thanks, looking at images that arouse or those that bring joy, dwelling with our anger or with the one who can bring peace?
These decisions are difficult because we live in a world that thinks we are wasting our time, that there are more exciting ways to use our talents, that there is more money to be made, more prestige, education, and success to be had, more respect and honor to gain, if we would just step away from our spiritual idealism and be realistic in our choices like everyone else.
What are we choosing?
STILL ON THE JOURNEY
Ouch…
Squander or seize time…?
Structured to grow or be distracted…?