Discernment :: Letting the Heart Guide the Eyes
“ Discernment is G-d's call to intercession, never to faultfinding” — Corrie Ten Boom
“The best leaders are readers of people. They have the intuitive ability to understand others by discerning how they feel and recognizing what they sense.” - John C. Maxwell
Etymology of Discern
Discern :: Middle English discernen, from Old French discerner, from Latin discernere (“to separate, divide, distinguish, discern”), from dis- (“apart”) + cernere (“to separate”)
Thinking about discernment
Reader, I want to talk to you about discernment. Lately I’ve thought a lot about the gift of discernment.
In fact, reader, a really great mini-sermon delivered by my pastor, Pastor Jeremy MacDonald, on Tuesday evening at the weekly prayer meeting, inspired the list (below) in this missive. Also, a recent Facebook post by the wonderful + beloved Lee Weissman (my brother from another mother) inspired the spirit of this post. Not the least of all, a bully in my personal life with whom I have chosen to go no-contact inspires this reflection on discernment.
To each of you, I am immensely grateful for the lessons you bring into my life. Yes reader, even emotional cruelty and abuse and pain it causes can and does teach me valuable things. For all of it, I thank the Divine.
Moving on. Let’s talk about discernment.
We probably can agree that our world starves for discernment, that human society has a poverty of discernment. Look around you, read the headlines, go onto Xwitter and read about the plague of violent crime, extremism, hatred, apathy, cruelty, political corruption and other evil behaviours.
Recently a 14 year old boy sadistically and viciously stabbed an elderly lady to death in Pickering, Ontario. On Wednesday a spate of attacks against female people happened near Oakridge Centre in South Vancouver. Not that long ago a woman was assaulted in a washroom at Second Beach near Stanley Park on a Saturday morning. Episodes of extreme violence happen routinely in Vancouver and across Canada and the police seem powerless to stop it, stuck as they are within a system of failed left wing criminal pseudo-justice, one bereft of discernment, one created by policymakers lacking the skill of discernment.
Reader, we can tell what something is by telling what it is not. A political leader who publicly takes pity on the 14 year old sadistic killer of an elderly woman, rather than the elderly woman and her family, points to the poverty of discernment in Canadian political leadership.
An MP and former prime minister who wears gaudy sneakers to the King’s throne speech in the parliamentary chamber points to a poverty of discernment. A prime minister who promises reproductive freedom for women and then reaffirms gender ideology points to a poverty of discernment.
An entire political leadership echelon which waxes on ad nauseum about “genocide” and then deliberately ignores the October 7th massacre and the hostage victims and survivors and their families points to a poverty of discernment. A political leadership echelon which wilfully ignores raging antisemitism and endorses Holocaust envy and pretends not to see Holocaust denial points to a poverty of discernment.
Why? Why is it like this?
Reader, why can’t we have nice things like sane and morally appropriate civic society, and prudent and sensible criminal justice, in Canada?
Why can’t Jewish Canadians have a civic life free from antisemitic extremism and Jew hatred?
Why can’t Christian Canadians have a civic life free from hatred + scorn + shaming + scapegoating for historical wrongs from hundreds of years ago, which they didn’t perpetrate?
Why can’t female people have a civic life free from male predation and violence?
Why can’t Canadians have honest + neutral + critical news media?
Why can’t Canadians have an honest + morally sound political infrastructure free from abusive intimidation + coercive control?
Why can’t Canadians have honest + humble + servant-oriented politicians who delegate and lead rather than hoard glory and micromanage?
Reader, what about discernment, where did it go, how do we get it back?
I made a list of things we can do, as individuals, to cultivate discernment in ourselves for our lives. My thanks to Pastor Jeremy MacDonald for the inspiration— I based my list below on his list, which he taught on Tuesday evening past. My thanks, also, to the beloved Lee Weissman, one of my favourite hoomans and mentors and teachers, he’s a lovely and humble spirit who has kept me close to g-d for several years without really trying. Lee also inspired this missive.
How can you cultivate discernment in your life?
Practise self-examination. Be humble and teachable
Listen more, talk less. Seek wise counsel
Ask questions. Test everything
Adjust your attitude. Grow in wisdom and maturity
Pause. Practise stillness and meditation
Seek. Begin actively cultivating the skill of discernment through your choices and relationships and responses
Read. Read. Read. Read literature, read history—both ancient and recent, read about wars and military history, read about foreign cultures and distant geopolitics, read the great works of the intellectual and philosophical and spiritual masters, read the Torah, read the Bible, read an actual genuine translation of Rumi’s Masnavi
Discernment grows out of humility, that means knowing your limits and exchanging haughtiness and arrogance for graciousness and demureness. Humility grows out of increasing your knowledge base. The more you learn, the wider your knowledge base becomes, the less you realise you know.
Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 :: To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven: a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted; a time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up; a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance; a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing; a time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away; a time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak; a time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace.
Qualities of discerning hoomans
Discerning people have an acute understanding of those around them, they grasp contextual complexities, they have honed and sharpened their self awareness, they have become adept at knowing when to speak up and when to shhh and say nothing.
The discerning know that they cannot see themselves in a pot of boiling water. The discerning do not seek to control; a micromanager cannot master discernment. An impulsive spirit cannot master discernment, neither can an individual who lacks the capacity for self control. Discernment grows out of self discipline. Discernment requires quiet confidence.
Final thoughts
Social media culture works against discernment, social media weakens our intellectual fortitude—it blocks discernment. Social media algorithms incentivise selfishness and self focus, they encourage impulsivity, and as such, they weaken self control and distort insight and understanding.
We live in a culture where echo chambers govern and dominate, where they teach humans how to human. We cannot argue intelligently, we cannot master dissonance. We talk past one another, we weaponise words, deploy cruelty in merciless fashion, and we reserve empathy and we should exercise it more freely. Feelings have become idols and emperors, critical thinking and honest self assessment have become punishable offences.
Reader, is it any wonder that we now find ourselves plagued by a poverty of discernment?