Have you ever tried to follow a map and come to a place where you have a choice as to the route? Have you ever tried to put something together (for me any children’s toy) and had a part that just didn’t seem to be in the assembly instructions? Or, one of my favorites, following a recipe and you have to discern how to increase or decrease the recipe and there is no guide for it? In each of these moments, discernment was the process of choosing what to do, making a decision.
I am a college professor and have a grant that focuses on vocational discernment for my students. This is the role of an advisor, to help the student decide which direction to take. Any path for the student is okay, but the student should choose a direction that makes them happy, fulfills them, and that they can spend a lifetime doing. Vocational discernment was originally the process to follow if a person was choosing religious life. When the Protestant reformation came around, the thought was that every person is called to something, hence discernment is for everyone.
Now, I want to be clear that I have already written about the will of God. Discernment is different, it is about choosing a path that fits you. Frost wrote, “The Road Not Taken”, and that is what discernment is, seeing two roads that diverged into the woods and choosing which to follow. Frost, in the poem, took the “road less traveled by” and it made “all the difference.” I never realized the poem was about discernment.
So, how does this touch me? Every day, we have choices to make. Either choice is okay with God, it is up to us to choose. We have to know that whatever the choice, the Creator is going on the trip with us. Discernment is a daily process that all of us engage in and from which we discover our directions in life. I have experienced discernment many times in my life, from ministry to social work, from social work took CEO, from CEO back to professor. I would love to tell you I always to the “road less traveled by” but that is not true. What I have tried to do is to make decisions that gave me the opportunity for the best life possible. So, dear friends, what ever choice you make is the right one, because you made it. You won’t ever be alone on the trip.
TMM