from Sacred Rhythms by Ruth Barton . . . .
Love is the deepest calling of the Christian life, the standard by which everything about our lives is measured. It is the standard by which Christ evaluated himself at the end of his life. "Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end " (John 13:1). Any decision-making process that fails to ask the love question misses the point of the Christian practice of discernment. Discernment is intended to take us deeper and deeper into the heart of God's will: that we would follow God passionately into love - even if it takes us all the way to the cross.
God does communicate with us through the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit is given to help us know the demands of love in our situation. At the end of his life, Jesus said that it was to our advantage that he went away, so that the Holy Spirit could come and live with us, closer to us than our own breath. Christ asked the Father to send the Holy Spirit to be a counselor and a guide for us - one who leads us deeper into truth right here, right now, as we are able to bear it. In this way the Holy Spirit expands Christ's teaching, taking a particular teaching beyond the moment when he gave it in a particular setting to the moment we are in right now. The Spirit is given to help us answer the call to love in ways that are consistent with and flow out of our own personality, gifts and calling within our particular situation. We are called to live love in the context of our own destiny as freely and authentically and wholeheartedly as Christ did.
The practice of discernment begins with a prayer for indifference. "I am indifferent to anything but God's will." This is a state of wide-openness to God in which I am free from undue attachment to any particular outcome and I am capable of relinquishing whatever might keep me from choosing for love. Gaining indifference is one of the most demanding aspects of the discernment process.
Just like everything else that is of significance in the spiritual life, God must accomplish this for us. The question that is most pertinent at this place in the discernment process is, What needs to die in me in order for God's will to come forth in my life? All we can do is pray and wait: say to God "I know I am not indifferent. I know there is till something in me that is clinging to my own agenda. If I am to become indifferent, you will have to do it in me."
The movement toward indifference is the threshold between two worlds: the world of human decision making and the world of discerning the divine will. In this waiting room of the soul we are ready to pray the second prayer - the prayer for wisdom. "If any of you is lacking in wisdom, ask God, who gives to all generously and grudgingly, and it will be given you" (James 1:5). Here we begin to understand why the prayer for indifference was so important: the wisdom of God is foolishness to this world. Discerning people are able to recognize God's guidance sometimes by the very fact that, to some onlookers, it appears at some level to be foolish. But because we have come to a place of indifference, it doesn't matter. When we have died to our need to be wise in others' eyes or to prove ourselves according to human standards, we are finally ready to ask for God's wisdom and receive it.
Love is the deepest calling of the Christian life, the standard by which everything about our lives is measured. It is the standard by which Christ evaluated himself at the end of his life. "Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end " (John 13:1). Any decision-making process that fails to ask the love question misses the point of the Christian practice of discernment. Discernment is intended to take us deeper and deeper into the heart of God's will: that we would follow God passionately into love - even if it takes us all the way to the cross.
God does communicate with us through the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit is given to help us know the demands of love in our situation. At the end of his life, Jesus said that it was to our advantage that he went away, so that the Holy Spirit could come and live with us, closer to us than our own breath. Christ asked the Father to send the Holy Spirit to be a counselor and a guide for us - one who leads us deeper into truth right here, right now, as we are able to bear it. In this way the Holy Spirit expands Christ's teaching, taking a particular teaching beyond the moment when he gave it in a particular setting to the moment we are in right now. The Spirit is given to help us answer the call to love in ways that are consistent with and flow out of our own personality, gifts and calling within our particular situation. We are called to live love in the context of our own destiny as freely and authentically and wholeheartedly as Christ did.
The practice of discernment begins with a prayer for indifference. "I am indifferent to anything but God's will." This is a state of wide-openness to God in which I am free from undue attachment to any particular outcome and I am capable of relinquishing whatever might keep me from choosing for love. Gaining indifference is one of the most demanding aspects of the discernment process.
Just like everything else that is of significance in the spiritual life, God must accomplish this for us. The question that is most pertinent at this place in the discernment process is, What needs to die in me in order for God's will to come forth in my life? All we can do is pray and wait: say to God "I know I am not indifferent. I know there is till something in me that is clinging to my own agenda. If I am to become indifferent, you will have to do it in me."
The movement toward indifference is the threshold between two worlds: the world of human decision making and the world of discerning the divine will. In this waiting room of the soul we are ready to pray the second prayer - the prayer for wisdom. "If any of you is lacking in wisdom, ask God, who gives to all generously and grudgingly, and it will be given you" (James 1:5). Here we begin to understand why the prayer for indifference was so important: the wisdom of God is foolishness to this world. Discerning people are able to recognize God's guidance sometimes by the very fact that, to some onlookers, it appears at some level to be foolish. But because we have come to a place of indifference, it doesn't matter. When we have died to our need to be wise in others' eyes or to prove ourselves according to human standards, we are finally ready to ask for God's wisdom and receive it.
I also call it "letting go" to what I want and think I need and want to control or fix! Not an easy discipline but the best place to be.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the encouragement as we are journeying together in Jesus.