Discernment: Reading the Signs of Daily Life

by Henri J.M. Nouwen

The Bible can be a good guide for our interpretation of events as we look to discern what God is doing and remember that God’s design and final purpose is that God will ultimately reign and God’s ways of love will prevail. God’s ways are not always our ways. God’s timetable is not always our timetable. Discernment calls us to settle into God’s ways of measuring time. Clock time (chronos) is divided into minutes, hours, days, and weeks, and its compartments dominate our lives. In chronological time, what happens to us is a series of disconnected incidents and accidents that we seek to manage or subdue to feel in control of our lives. Time becomes a burden unless we convert it into God’s time. God’s time (kairos) has to do with opportunity and fullness of meaning, moments that are ripe for their intended purpose. When we see time in light of our faith in the God of history, we see that the events of this year are not just a series of happy or unhappy events but part of the shaping hands of God, who wants to mold our world and our lives. Even when life seems harried and continues to have hard moments, we can believe that something good is happening amid all of this. We get glimpses of how God might be working out his purposes in our days. Time becomes not just something to get through or manipulate or manage, but the arena of God’s good work in us. Whatever happens—good things or bad, pleasant or problematic—we ask, “What might God be doing here?” We see the events of the day...