Looking Through Things Instead Of Just Looking At Them

I was talking with a parishioner recently who’s been having some chronic knee pain that has been quite limiting and so they decided to get a doctor’s consult. The first medical professional that they consulted told them that they would likely need a knee replacement (and gave numerous reasons). A friend, however, said that they should get a “second opinion,” and so they did. The second medical professional that they consulted said that they would not recommend a knee replacement (and gave numerous reasons). The person was telling me that they did not know who to believe or trust!

We’ve probably all been in a similar situation – and not just about medical decisions. Maybe it’s about life decisions. Or lifestyle choices. But the question emerges, “How do you determine whom to trust about things?”

Our first reading from 1 John 3 says to us, “Beloveds, do not trust every spirit but test the spirits to see whether they belong to God.”  

For me, this may be one of the hardest parts of the spiritual life – knowing which spirits to trust and how to test them. And the reading from 1 John 3 goes on to tell us that some of the spirits of this world are not neutral. They will lead us astray and take us further away from God and each other. 

So how do we know which is which? I wish I had an easy answer or formula for you.

A word that we don’t use much anymore but was used a lot in the past in the spiritual life is the word “discernment.” Discernment was a process used in order to determine which spirit something was coming from. It was done both individually and collectively and was especially part and parcel of the contemplative tradition.

Henri Nouwen has been a spiritual guide of mine for decades now. He wrote a wonderful book on discernment and defines the process as “a spiritual understanding and an experiential knowledge of how God is active in daily life that is acquired through disciplined spiritual practice. Discernment is faithful living and listening to God’s love and direction so that we can fulfill our individual calling and shared mission.” (I use numerous quotes from the first chapter of his book in the rest of this blog post)

So much jumps out at me from just that definition – but especially the words “knowledge of how God is active in daily life that is acquired through disciplined spiritual practice.”

Translation: There’s no short cut or quick fix. It requires disciplined practice.

Nouwen acknowledged that in his own life he was often “running from class to class and traveling from place to place” which made it hard for him to “see God at work in [his] life.” He also was honest that, even as he longed for some solitude, rest and clarity in his life, he was fearful of what would happen in silence and slowing down.

Maybe we feel some similar things. 

Nouwen’s assertion is that “when we are truly listening, we come to know that God is speaking to us, pointing the way, showing direction” and says that the process of discernment helps us to listen to deeper sounds and a different beat in life than what we may be living or what our culture offers us. He goes on to say that discernment allows us to “see through” the appearance of things and examine their deeper meanings and impacts on us. We don’t so much “look at things as through them, into their hearts and centers…”

In the gospel from Matthew 4, Jesus is just beginning his ministry. As he does this he is fulfilling the ancient prophecy from Isaiah that “on those dwelling in a land overshadowed by death, light has arisen.” We’re told that Jesus went around preaching, teaching and healing and that word spread quickly of his authority and power.

We know from the gospel record that Jesus did the very kind of discernment that Nouwen spoke about. He engaged in a serious inner journey and made himself readily available to be “found” by God on a regular basis and allowed himself to be a vessel for God’s work in the world. Jesus also retreated from the world, slowed himself down and really tried to see through reality to get at what was underneath. Thus, he was able to speak to the hearts of people and offer them what they needed (in terms of authentic engagement and healing), was able to see and name where his tradition and leaders had gone astray from God’s plan (and call them back to justice and jubilee) and was able to find his own role and place in God’s plan.

I know that on a lot of days I can feel like our world is “overshadowed by death” and I long for a “light” to arise in that darkness. The light, however, can be hard to find sometimes, in part, because we are endlessly bombarded by news, information, noise and distraction in this ever-quickening digital era. And because things are regularly moving so fast, I know that I have difficulty seeing into the heart of things to even know the spirit of what I am engaging. I know that I and so many others end up doing a lot of looking AT things but not much looking THROUGH them to get at what is underneath.

Nowen says it like this, “the many activities in which we are involved, the many concerns that occupy our time, the many sounds that surround us make it hard to hear the ‘still, small voice’ through which God’s presence and will are made known.” And he said this in 2013! Think of how much has changed around us since then!

In his book, Nouwen names many practices that we can engage which can help us do the deeper spiritual listening, but they all start with various forms of silence and prayer – what he calls the embrace of ‘empty time.’ These opportunities of dedicated time to be intentionally in God’s presence, he says, reveal the “priorities, directions and gifts from God,” and inevitably draw us deeper into community with the world. As we build this muscle of discernment, we grow in our capacity to feel our feelings, listen to our bodies, listen to the marginalized voices in our lives and in the world, trust intuition, and witness the impacts that our decisions have on ourselves and others.

At times our discernment might urge to take up a new action or direction. At times it might urge us to remain in the same place. But no matter what, it will require our patience and trust.

And while we may be waiting for light to appear in this world, Nouwen says that discernment practices form us into lights in the darkness so that we become a source of hope in this world (individually and collectively) as we more closely align ourselves with God’s will and plan for humanity. For me this has beautiful echoes of June Jordan‘s words that “we are the ones we have been waiting for.”

Sorting out what is of God in our lives and what is not is no easy undertaking and will require a lot from us. But it starts with ‘empty space’ where we intentionally pause and invite God to find us in the midst of our lives so that we not so much look at things but through them.