Hey Friend -

Over the last few months, I've been discerning something.

I alluded to it a few times over on Twitter/X a couple of times. I was praying about it, seeking counsel, and journaling through the decision pretty hard. I was 98% sure I would pull the string on it and go for it. I had been thinking about it broadly for years, and in the last couple of years investigating more and more into it. I was finally at a point where I found something that checked all the boxes and folks were urging me to go for it.

I decided in around 10 minutes one day I wasn't going to do it.

Why?

Well - that's what I want to write about today.

Discernment is one of those weird words and concepts. While it shows up in wider cultural language, to me, it is a Christian concept. Call it wise decisions, or seeking God, you can attach a bunch of spiritual language to it. Even when it does show up in secular culture, it echoes the sentiments of a spiritual decision with larger consequences.

Google's Ngram viewer shows the curve of the popularity of the word appearing to be strong in 1800, bottoming out around 1980 and beginning to climb back upward. A peek into the titles released since 1980 shows mainly Christian books. Protestantism discovered the spiritual formation movement around then, so it tracks.

But this isn't a history lesson.

Once I internally made my decision, I posted this on Twitter/X.

"Discernment, especially heavy discernment, is only a thing if you sometimes decide to not do something even if you want to."

I was reflecting today on that statement, and I think I would amend it to include things you want to do AND might believe to be good or even right.

That is the thing. We can't call trying to find the wisdom of the Lord regarding something bad or sinful discernment. We can go into John Wesley's understanding of sin in the heart of a believer in sermon 19 The Great Privilege of Those Born of God. In this sermon, Wesley outlines a pathway of wisdom to understand finding freedom from sin for a Christian. This isn't discernment...but Wesley has an assumption as part of his pathway proper to use for us in a conversation about discernment.

Active freedom from sin means we can engage directly with the power of God. To practice discernment, we have to have this necessary belief we can interact with the presence of God. We can find clarity moving forward, and make decisions aligned even deeper with His will and the Kingdom of God. That is the difference between discernment and decision-making. All discernment is decision-making, but not all decision-making necessarily involves discernment.

Quick Insert here - I believe discernment is something only those who call themselves Christian can practice because it relies on the spirit of God and the necessary actions of justification/sanctification which give us power inside the Spirit.

So what have I been thinking about discernment?

That would take a lot. I've got years of notes and notes about discernment, but I'll just share with you one brief idea from the last couple of weeks here.

I call it the spiral of disentanglement. It emerged from some broader thoughts around what it means to realize the difference between what we are spiritually discerning and the cultural pull of "if it makes me feel good, that means it is right". We have to sometimes work to break ourselves away from what culture tells is always OK. Especially if it makes us feel good.

In Charles Taylor's opus A Secular Age, he says this about living for the good vibes only.

By contrast, orthodox Christianity sees our highest mode of being as arising in a relation, moreover, one which is not equal, but on which we draw to know and be ourselves.

He goes on to call modernity "an era of freedom". The highest value we have in life is the ability to make our own choices and assume they will always bring the good life AND be right. To call ourselves a Christian, and to not practice discernment is dangerous because we are assuming we can internally generate everything necessary to have a life completely focused on.

Discernment is participating in the relationship with God in an ordered way.

In some ways, discernment means we are stepping back into the core practice of trusting God. No matter what, we trust. Trust is built differently in the good times. Those are when we might be slacking on our trust, or assuming if something seems remotely good, we are totally OK pursuing it. We also might have a deformed sense of trust and make all sorts of decisions assuming God will have our back no matter what. This isn't Christian practice. Philippians 4:13 isn't a card we can throw on the table to explain our lack of worldly or spiritual wisdom. It also isn't a verse we can quote to justify the negative effects of our decisions upon others.

To discern means we are weighing something out. Part of that weighing is exploring the tension of who else our decision might affect. I drew out this little graph to illustrate the journey we must take.

If whatever we are trying to discern will give US much more benefit at the expense of others...it makes it easier to realize where the decision might actually be. Jesus taught consistently if we will lose ourselves we will find ourselves. This tracks with the above Taylor quote about discernment being an exercise of personal growth.

If we hold to what Jesus says here, part of the larger goal of any sort of spiritual action of discernment will be more of a letting of the self go. This doesn't mean we get into some sort of self-flagellation for the sake of spiritual glory. It just gives us a better indicator of our decision-making.

I also think knowing we need to shift into a season of discernment about a specific thing is itself a result of prime spiritual formation and a work of the Spirit inside us already.

• We know it is a decision of consequence.

• It is a desire to stay more centered in the larger will of God.

• It natively assumes we might NOT be naturally becoming more centered and this discernment path is part of a spiritual redirection more towards the heart and will of the Father.

So that's it (for now) on discernment.

As always, you can hit reply and get into my inbox with any thoughts.

Chad

PS. So what was this thing I was discerning? Entering into a PhD program next year. I ultimately decided it would be fun for me, but take too much time away from family and other priorities.