The Questions of Discernment

From Rowan Williams:

Some important questions for reflection at the heart of discernment:

(a)What course of action more fully seems to resonate with the kind of life Christ lived and lives?(b)What course of action opens up more possibilities for God to ‘come through’?(c)What opens rather than closes doors for God’s healing, forgiving, reconciling, and creating work to go on?

“There is no guarantee that in any situation there will be only one clear and compelling answer. In the process of asking these questions, in the very process of reflecting and discerning we are making space in ourselves for the life of Christ and the creative movement of God…”

Comments

[Tom Smith]

I love the questions, a few years ago, Howard Baker (Fuller and Denver seminary) gave me this list from Saint Vincent:

1. We seek to be formed in the likeness of Jesus. Jesus is our model. We must spend time with him in consistent prayer. We regularly reflect on his actions (in scripture) and on the cross. We observe how he thinks, acts, chooses and let his way become our own.
2. We do what is in front of us. The Jesus who is hungry, thirsty, "in need" is not somewhere else. He is here. The work that we are called to do is right in front of us if we pay attention.
3. We choose the little and the ordinary and distrust the grand schemes.
4. We avoid concentrating on our sins and our failures. We keep our attention always focused on Jesus.
5. We know that God acts in a quiet and loving manner. We do not try to draw attention to ourselves or make a "lot of noise" about what we're doing.
6. We practice moderation in everything. "It is a ruse of the devil, by which he deceives good people, to induce them to do more than they are able, so that they end up not being able to do anything. The spirit of God urges one gently to do the good that can be done reasonably, so that it may be done perseveringly and for a long time"
7. We put in place the organization and the structures that makes it possible for us to do our work.
8. We act on what we hear in prayer - make practical resolutions. We leave Christ in prayer to go to Christ in the poor.
9. Our love is affective and effective. True charity includes both arms.
10. "Human success" is not the measure of whether our choices are right. We follow the humble Jesus who was ridiculed and abandoned.

Enjoy the Rugby Paul and if we go by "may the best team win", then NZ will thrash us tomorrow, yet my hope is not dead :)

[Paul Fromont]

Thanks Tom. I appreciate 10-points...will add them to my thinking and reflection. It's funny; my wife hasn't seen my post but we were just talking about discerning God this afternoon....