when WWJD just goes south

Last night at sol cafe we had an enjoyable conversation that went all over the place.  I want to pick up on a single thread:  hearing God.   This whole business of discerning who or what it is that God wants me to be. 

There are sometimes a few stages to questions & conversations.  I'm prone to using any of the following methods of "answering".  I'm not saying that any of these kinds of answers are good or bad (kinda depends), but here's my short list:

A]  the "versified" answer ("look at this little passage - it solves everything!")
B]  the "deep" answer (it's all about becoming the full vision of humanity in Christ blah blah blah)
C]  the "rabbi" answer (I have figured this out in my life - just listen to me)

Ya know, there are times when posing the WWJD question won't give a satisfactory answer.  Like if said, hmm...  should I take my wife out on a romantic date this weekend?   WWJD?  I trust that Jesus wouldn't, as that would be fairly unethical of Him to do that sort of thing with another man's wife.  Think about it.

How do I discern what God is calling me to?

Two contrasting bits of story from this morning's readings;  Gideon looking for a sign, and the letter to the Hebrews.   First Gideon (Judges 6:17) meets up with an angel of the Lord who tells him to do this and that.  And Gideon wants a bit more confirmation:   "Then he said to him, ‘If now I have found favour with you, then show me a sign that it is you who speak with me."  And a sign is given, along with a few other signs to come. 

Does God guide us this way?  Does He show us unmistakably what we are to do, where we are to go, who we are to be?  Well, sometimes yes.

Then the author of the letter to the Hebrews takes things in a different direction & starts talking about "those whose faculties have been trained by practice to distinguish good from evil." (5:14).   What is this about?  You mean that some of us need to "practice" figuring out what the right thing to do is?  It just isn't automatic?  Or is there a season of growth where we need to sharpen our spiritual wits in order to figure out, discern, judge what the best course of action is?

Either/or;  both/and - Pentecost is coming up...gift of the Holy Spirit

oops - gotta go and will pick this up later - building maintenance has arrived to replace the ductwork in the offices at this end of the building, I'll edit later.

Comments

[Winston]

In other words, you're changing the artwork and decor in your office? Ha ha. Sorry, distance readers, slightly inside joke in as much as you have to have seen the inside of his office... let's just say Joe brings minimalism to a whole new level.

Look forward to the rest of this post as it is timely for me!

[Matt]

WWJD comes in the wrong verb tense...should we not be asking WIJDRHRN?

(What is Jesus doing, right here, right now)

[steve the z]

Jesus did things I am not capable of, I can't read minds, I wouldn't go to court without a lawyer (especially one with the death penalty). I havn't tried but I assume I can't raise the dead, or heal people with one touch.

However, He sure did pray a lot, I could probably emulate that more without anything but good happening. When I think of WWJD I just assume I couldn't do the vast majority of it, I hope whatever I do has value in life and Christ is leading it.

[joseph]

winston - do I ever actually finish off these things? I'll have it all figured out in a hundred years...

steve - I think you probably have touched on the most important aspect of "discerning": prayer.

matt - that seems like a good antidote to the tendency to think that Jesus is on the sidelines waiting to see what I will do before He reacts to it, rather than (as you point out) realizing that God is already and always active somehow, and our part is to join Him in what he is up to.

And somewhere in this is the thought of pentecost approaching - I recall Jesus telling his disciples to wait until they had received the Spirit before they go and try anything foolish (like spreading the Gospel).

[Tim]

Sorry, but I think you folks are doing a wee bit of rationalisation here.

1 John says 'This is how we know we are in him: Whoever claims to live in him must live ("walk" in Greek) as Jesus did'. That's all 'WWJD' is saying.

Of course I sometimes have to use my brain to apply the principle. Of course there are some things Jesus did that I can't do, even with the Spirit's help. Of course the principle can't be applied literally to every life situation I find myself in. But the obligation to live by the principle is definitely in the New Testament. It's used to encourage people not to put a stumbling block in the way of others ('Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ' - 1 Cor. 11:1). It's used to encourage people to be faithful through suffering and not to retaliate ('Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps' - 1 Peter 2:21). And, by the way, it's in the Rule of Likfe in the Book of Common Prayer as well - 'Putting the teaching and example of Christ into practice in our everyday life'.

[joseph]

tim, while I agree with your generalization, the WWJD thing is a bit of a red herring.

the actual discussion (from an evening at sol cafe) is about (or rather was about) the idea of decision making - how does God guide us into specific decisions? Let's look at the example of career choice: given that I can serve God as a plumber or as a graphic designer, where do I start to make the choice? And as a cautionary note, let's try to put ourselves in the position of someone wrestling with questions of guidance/decision making.

In one sense it's easy for me to say blah blah blah, because I've already made those kinds of choices. As I said, I think steve hits the nail on the head when he talks about prayer as a pretty good place to start.

So the original question: how do I know what God wants me to do/ wants me to be, is about discerning our specific calling/ vocation/ ministry. And maybe those things change as well over the course of life (and certainly over the course of a degree - I think at various times I was headed into journalism, physics, archeology...

And now that we are on this side of Pentecost, I'd have to say the Holy Spirit...

Insights?