Discernment: Challenges and Obstacles

Discernment:  In today’s first Scripture reading, 1 Samuel 16: 1-13, God asks Samuel to go to Bethlehem to meet Jesse, “for I have chosen my king from among his sons.”  Samuel is frightened.  “How can I do that? Saul will kill me,” is Samuel’s response.  How often do we not use a similar excuse” “I can’t do that, Lord!  So and so will kill me.”  “I can’t do that Lord! What if so-and-so hears about it; my name will be mud!”  “What will so-and-so think if he/she hears what I’s considering to do with my life?” “I can’t choose that career, that major; my parents will never approve of it.” “I can’t marry so-and-so; my parents will have a fit.”   “No, Lord! No way; I will get into trouble if I do that. I will lose friends.  I will lose that promotion. I will be looked upon with disdain,” and so on and on we go with excuses of why we cannot follow the Spirit’s lead!

When Samuel gets to Bethlehem and meets Jesse’s sons, he is awed by the ones Jesse presents.   In fact, he is so enamored by the appearance and lofty stature of the first of Jesse’s sons, Samuel is convinced that he is the one God has chosen. But God lets Samuel know that it is not so. “Do not judge from his appearance or from his lofty stature, because I have rejected him. Not as man sees does God see, because he sees the appearance but the Lord looks into the heart.” Among the seven sons Jesse presents none is the one God has chosen for His anointed. So Samuel asks:  “Do you have any other sons?”  And Jesse says “Yes, my youngest son is tending sheep.” “Send for him,” Samuel orders. It is the youngest son, the one excluded, the one assigned menial tasks, the least likely humanly speaking that is chosen to be anointed the next king of Israel.  Samuel anoints him “and from that day on, the Spirit of the Lord rushed upon David.”

What do we learn about discernment from this reading? 1) that judging by appearances is usually off base,  2) that the most enamoring, glamorous, popular choice may not be in God’s plan for us, 3) that it is the Spirit of the Lord that empowers one  to do God’s will,  3) that sometimes  the unthinkable is the right thing to do and 4) that the objection  “what will others think of me” might be Satan’s cunning way of luring you into the temptation of choosing human will over  God’s will!

What to do? Sit in the quiet of prayer and listen to the Lord!   If  others are pressuring you to  not follow the Spirit’s lead, that is, to not do what , in your heart of hearts, you know is God’s will for you, tell the Lord about this pressure! Share with the Lord the choice you are considering and why! Is it the glamour of it, the popularity of it, the fact that what you truly want others disapprove of  when, in your heart of hearts, that is that to which you feel called.