IMAGO DEI:
www.imagodeicommunity.ca
Do I bring to the moment of birth and not give delivery?” says the Lord
Isa. 66:9
The end of any discernment process will naturally presume some action on our part. That’s why Fr. Thomas Green, in his book, Weeds among the Wheat, refers to discernment as “prayer meeting action.” In other words, the final stage of discernment, will inevitably require of us the courage to act.
But the process of discernment can sometimes lead to a place of paralysis where a person cannot, or perhaps will not, choose a course of action out of fear of being wrong. They have done all the preliminary prayer work of discernment. They have established impartiality in themselves, remaining at an equilibrium regarding all the options before them, they have removed from themselves the influence of inordinate desires or fears that would affect their decision, and they have given their wills over to God’s pleasure as best they can. But in the process of being so open-handed in their disposition, they have perhaps also relinquished their will to act.
We often have a pretty good idea of what God is calling us to do. But, consciously or subconsciously, we also want to delay the inevitable action that this choice will require of us. Feeling stuck like this—unable to bring to birth that which we have conceived—reveals an underlying disposition that is important to acknowledge in the discernment process. It is the fear we have of facing the onerous responsibility of making a choice. Through our inaction, we are in fact saying to God, “I don’t really want to make this decision. I want You to make it for me.” But this is where God turns the tables on us. If we have been saying to the Lord, “I want whatever You want,” the Lord now says to us, “Good, but you are the one who must now choose what you think I want.”
As discerning Christians we are to assume the responsibility of not only seeking God’s will in our lives but of also acting in the world according to that discernment. In the freedom of faith, it is up to us to choose, with God’s counsel, how to best serve Him. And it is a shirking of that responsibility when our discernment process simply ends with the prayer, “You decide for me.”
Fear of the responsibility of making a choice can keep us paralyzed in an unfruitful state of discernment. This is the image the Lord gives in Isaiah—of a baby stuck in the labour process. Discernment, however, is never a substitute for faith. Nor is it an excuse to dump our hard decisions on God. But it does take courage—the final thrust of faith—to bring to birth that which we have conceived in our discernment, and to counter the paralyzing fear that sometimes sabotages the process of “prayer meeting action.”
Rob Des Cotes
Imago Dei Christian Communities
(written for Oct.17th, 2013)
QUESTIONS
1. Do you remember an occasion when the fear of making a wrong choice paralyzed you? How did the situation resolve itself? Were the fears warranted?
2. How might the open-handed disposition we are trying to maintain in our discernment process wrongly suggest to us that we are also letting go of our responsibility to choose? How is asking God to decide for us a shirking of the freedom He gives us to discern His will?
3. What will you need from God in order to find the courage to act, in faith, in the midst of uncertainty with regards to the outcome of your decision?
PRAYER: If there is an issue that you are presently discerning, consider the posture of saying yes beforehand to God, regardless of which option He will indicate. In other words, lean forward with your will, and be fully prepared to act according to either direction the Lord might choose.