Do not be afraid to say, “Yes”.

These words of King David sum up discernment in the modern age. When we hear the word
“Discernment” we often get scared. We get scared because we don’t know what God could potentially ask us to do. We get scared because we fear that God will ask us to do something that we don’t want to do. We get scared because we fear that God will ask us to do something that we can’t do. We get scared because we fear that God will ask us to do something that won’t make us happy. These are just a few examples of the things we fear when we think of discernment, and I could add many more things to the list but these are the major fears we all encounter. The problem with these fears is that they can lead us to harden our hearts if we are not careful. Hearing God’s voice can be a terrifying experience but listening for God is at the heart of discernment. Discernment should never be a scary process because that would directly contradict who God is. God never works through fear. Any fear during discernment comes from the evil one who is working to draw us away from God. The fears I described previously are natural at the beginning of discerning God’s will for our lives, but I want to invite you to view the process of discernment in a completely different life that does not allow for fear to creep in but invites hope to rush in.

Instead of discernment being viewed as something that is going to lead us away from what we really want to do, it can be viewed as the highest way to say yes to God. God continually calls us to do things. God continually asks you to do everything from talking to a friend, to giving to the church, to *gasp* changing your path of discernment. Instead of being afraid when we hear these things from God, we can take them as an opportunity to say yes to God. Saying yes to God is our roadway to eternal happiness. He gives us many opportunities to say yes to Him and the more we say no the more He longs for us to come back to Him. He will not ask us to do something that He knows will not make us happy and He will not ask us to do something that we are not able to do. He will not do any of these things because God is a gentleman and will not force Himself on Us. He invites us to say yes to Him but will not force us to go along with His plan.

Discernment is not meant to be a scary experience. It is meant to be a life-giving experience where God’s love can rush into our lives. God’s love rushes in best when we give ourselves completely to Him in imitation of the Virgin Mary. Mary’s word at the Annunciation when she said, “Let it be done to me according to your word” is the perfect example of God’s love rushing into the human heart and bringing life with it through her complete and total yes. God loved Mary so much that He asked her to be the Mother of His Son who would enter the world through her, be totally reliant on her, and look to her during The final moments of His earthly life on the cross. Mary’s yes at that moment changed the world forever because it brought Jesus Christ into the world. Our yes to God has the power to change the world forever as well. We might not be asked to become the earthly parent of our savior but the
saints give us many examples of the world-changing things that we could be asked to do by just saying yes. St. Mother Theresa said yes to founding the Missionaries of Charity and impacted so many lives that she won the Nobel Peace Prize. St. Maximillian Kolbe said yes to founding a newspaper proclaiming the goodness of God and freely died for a man whom he didn’t know but became a martyr of charity. St. Augustine lived a life of sin and shame before his conversion but his yes to God slowly transformed him into one of the greatest writers, preachers, and apologists the world has ever seen. St. Joseph was not planning on being the earthly father of Jesus Christ but he said yes to committing to Mary and he did not back down from this. He was the man who instructed and provided for the Child Jesus while teaching Him to be a man. Joseph’s yes allowed Jesus to fully become the man he was called to be.

I could go on and on with examples of how the yes of saints has changed the world but every example points to one truth. Every one of these people changed the world by saying yes to God’s plan in their lives. That doesn’t mean they weren’t scared or worried or anxious because they most likely were but they used the invitation to do something great for God. Through our discernment, we are given the opportunity to discover what great thing God is inviting us to do.