Developing Discernment
Sometimes you have to wait & see what it is going to do, but with time you learn the weeds from the flowers. --Mama Judah
I have enjoyed gardening at our new home; the soil is crazy fertile, and the climate is conducive to both flowers and vegetables. Our corn and green beans shot up with little effort, and I've had jars brimming with zinnias brightening my kitchen all summer long. Since the gardens were filled with beauty before we moved in, I've had to wait a bit between growing seasons to find out if some perennial planted before my time is sprouting or if the leafy seedlings I'm witnessing with anticipation are just weeds.
The news is filled with various perspectives, mostly disturbing with often alarming predictions. Each news outlet has its own bias about who is to blame for what. With so much going on right now, in Iraq and Syria, mysterious plane crashes, escalating tension/violence in Russia and Ukraine, what does one make of it? Job asks regarding his own complaints: "Is there any injustice on my tongue? Cannot my palate discern the cause of calamity?" (6:30). The calamities surrounding us are complex certainly. How are we to interpret them? Are we even to try?
This week during a study on The Lord's Prayer, my husband talked about two kinds of will (as in "Thy will be done"): prescriptive and decretive. In the first, God has shown us how to carry out His will by obeying what He commands in His word (Love your neighbor as yourself. Honor your father and mother. . .) As for the second, God's will is what happens. "God can do all his holy will" does not mean that God causes evil to happen; rather whatever happens, happens as part of His decretive will. This mess we live in now is what God has ordained to come to pass.
Wait a minute, does that mean His plans include war, disease, natural disasters, genocide? God cannot do what is evil, so how can His plans include times such as these?
I've been doing the reading through the Bible-in-one-year plan as I mentioned before. In it where readings from Old and New Testaments, Psalms and Proverbs are arranged each day, I've enjoyed, though occasionally been disturbed by, the juxtaposition of the wars and annexation of land in the Old; Christ's incredible life, the philosophy and moral teaching of how to love and live in the New;+ the practicality of the Proverbs; the poetry, pain and joy of the Psalms. At times, the heterogeneity has been confounding; while, at other times, the consistencies in the overall purpose remind me that His ways are not my ways (Isaiah 55:8 "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD."). That perspective, that attitude of realizing the infinite, omniscient, all-wise Father knows best: "For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts." (Isaiah 55:9) is what should dictate how I approach my doubts, my questions concerning His word and His decretive will.
As for discerning God's decretive will, it is not my place. As my brother says, "It is what it is." All I can do about what is going on right now is pray, "thy will be done." I can ask for the wisdom to know the weeds from the flowers, and the strength to figure out what I can do to make a difference, what I can do to show Christ's love. I need to pray that I can rely more fully on God's infinite wisdom to give me strength to carry out His prescriptive will.
One of my husband's favorite hymns comes to mind, "Whatever My God Ordains Is Right."
For a link to the full text: http://cyberhymnal.org/htm/w/h/a/whateerm.htm
Whate’er my God ordains is right:
His holy will abideth;
I will be still whate’er He doth;
And follow where He guideth;
He is my God; though dark my road,
He holds me that I shall not fall:
Wherefore to Him I leave it all.
For a beautiful rendition of this hymn with lyrics:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hDn4A92pkfE
And for one of my own about the chasm between what our mind imagines convinced by what society sells and the beautiful, but often difficult, reality of relationship:
THEY FRAY
around the edges of love--propulsion
into picture perfect through distance.
That niche in which hearts grow semi-webbed
to navigate the primordial sea of desire, dispensed
without regard to the prescription.
The golden jackal laughs us into existence--
cattails swaying to the two-step of the Achy Breaky
and burrowing into the fiber damages wintering
welfare-- hats off to the myth of ease perishing
volition; all is sacrificed to the lemming concocted
by online fairy tales that entrance hawks and the wisdom of owls
while the yellow water lily sinks underwater
with the weight of united persecution: love.
I have enjoyed gardening at our new home; the soil is crazy fertile, and the climate is conducive to both flowers and vegetables. Our corn and green beans shot up with little effort, and I've had jars brimming with zinnias brightening my kitchen all summer long. Since the gardens were filled with beauty before we moved in, I've had to wait a bit between growing seasons to find out if some perennial planted before my time is sprouting or if the leafy seedlings I'm witnessing with anticipation are just weeds.
The news is filled with various perspectives, mostly disturbing with often alarming predictions. Each news outlet has its own bias about who is to blame for what. With so much going on right now, in Iraq and Syria, mysterious plane crashes, escalating tension/violence in Russia and Ukraine, what does one make of it? Job asks regarding his own complaints: "Is there any injustice on my tongue? Cannot my palate discern the cause of calamity?" (6:30). The calamities surrounding us are complex certainly. How are we to interpret them? Are we even to try?
This week during a study on The Lord's Prayer, my husband talked about two kinds of will (as in "Thy will be done"): prescriptive and decretive. In the first, God has shown us how to carry out His will by obeying what He commands in His word (Love your neighbor as yourself. Honor your father and mother. . .) As for the second, God's will is what happens. "God can do all his holy will" does not mean that God causes evil to happen; rather whatever happens, happens as part of His decretive will. This mess we live in now is what God has ordained to come to pass.
Wait a minute, does that mean His plans include war, disease, natural disasters, genocide? God cannot do what is evil, so how can His plans include times such as these?
I've been doing the reading through the Bible-in-one-year plan as I mentioned before. In it where readings from Old and New Testaments, Psalms and Proverbs are arranged each day, I've enjoyed, though occasionally been disturbed by, the juxtaposition of the wars and annexation of land in the Old; Christ's incredible life, the philosophy and moral teaching of how to love and live in the New;+ the practicality of the Proverbs; the poetry, pain and joy of the Psalms. At times, the heterogeneity has been confounding; while, at other times, the consistencies in the overall purpose remind me that His ways are not my ways (Isaiah 55:8 "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD."). That perspective, that attitude of realizing the infinite, omniscient, all-wise Father knows best: "For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts." (Isaiah 55:9) is what should dictate how I approach my doubts, my questions concerning His word and His decretive will.
As for discerning God's decretive will, it is not my place. As my brother says, "It is what it is." All I can do about what is going on right now is pray, "thy will be done." I can ask for the wisdom to know the weeds from the flowers, and the strength to figure out what I can do to make a difference, what I can do to show Christ's love. I need to pray that I can rely more fully on God's infinite wisdom to give me strength to carry out His prescriptive will.
One of my husband's favorite hymns comes to mind, "Whatever My God Ordains Is Right."
For a link to the full text: http://cyberhymnal.org/htm/w/h/a/whateerm.htm
Whate’er my God ordains is right:
His holy will abideth;
I will be still whate’er He doth;
And follow where He guideth;
He is my God; though dark my road,
He holds me that I shall not fall:
Wherefore to Him I leave it all.
For a beautiful rendition of this hymn with lyrics:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hDn4A92pkfE
And for one of my own about the chasm between what our mind imagines convinced by what society sells and the beautiful, but often difficult, reality of relationship:
THEY FRAY
around the edges of love--propulsion
into picture perfect through distance.
That niche in which hearts grow semi-webbed
to navigate the primordial sea of desire, dispensed
without regard to the prescription.
The golden jackal laughs us into existence--
cattails swaying to the two-step of the Achy Breaky
and burrowing into the fiber damages wintering
welfare-- hats off to the myth of ease perishing
volition; all is sacrificed to the lemming concocted
by online fairy tales that entrance hawks and the wisdom of owls
while the yellow water lily sinks underwater
with the weight of united persecution: love.
I love this post. I always find your devotionals moving and inspiring. Keep it up!
ReplyDeleteI have been doing daily readings sent to me via know.gd (email or text). I agree about the strangeness and/or consistency highlighted by the juxtaposition in such reading plans. I just started reading Ruth today. I love her.
I'm still trying to keep up with the Joy Dares at joyisnotanemotion. Stop by if you ever get a chance.
ReplyDelete