There is a word that my brain keeps coming back to. Discernment. How do we find the right path to follow? How do we know where we are meant to be, and where we are meant to be going?

I’m not a man who is fond of the idea of the future, as you may have gathered. I work from the possibility that there might be one, rather than from a dead certainty. This is based on my own personal experience. I’ve been through so much of life where a future was not guaranteed. So when I try to plan for the future, there’s a little part of me that says “What future? What if it never happens? What if it doesn’t turn out like that? What if…? What if…?” This little part can keep going for hours, if necessary. Long ago, I learned that the easiest way not to send myself into the “What if” spiral of descent was not to think about the future, and not to try to plan for the unexpected in my personal life.

After all, I might get run over by a bus tomorrow, and what a fool I’d be if I’d just signed up for evening classes. And how inconvenient for the class organiser. Safer all round, less awkwardness involved if that situation is absolutely avoided. Can I guarantee not being hit by a bus tomorrow? Well, I can cross the road carefully. But a bus might come out of the blue, and still run me over. A bus might corner too fast, and fall on me. In a freak accident at an event organised by the Red Arrows and the London Transport Museum, an old style red doubledecker might drop out of the sky and land right on me…

Anyway, you see the problem. Which brings me neatly round to discernment. Discernment is not trying to see what the future is. Discernment, in many ways, is the art of looking at what the present is. In traditional terms, it’s about finding God’s purpose. In less theic terms, one could see it as finding the right course, the direction one is meant to be moving in. IT’s not an easy process, but I’ve start to apply some of the principles to my bigger decision making processes.

In’s about asking “Where am I supposed to be? Where is the right place for me at this time?” An important part of it is in looking at previous decisions, where a movement was made in the right direction, and looking at the similarities. Finding the little milestones, the little tics that say “This is the right place to go.”

I’ve had to do it a couple of times recently. Each time, seeing that my direction could change entirely. Each time, weighing up all the pros and cons, looking at previous decisions, and trying to discern the route I need to take. But it’s not about looking at the future, it’s looking at where the present leads. Again, a beautiful piece of sophistry there…

And then, I start off again, perhaps moving in a new direction. And as I do, I carefully tiptoe round the traditional use of the art of discernment. One day, I’ll look at that door, and decide to step through it… But not today…