Discernment often comes unexpectedly. In the moment: Our vision is sharper. Our hearing is keener. Our knowing is unquestionable. This is when discretion is imperative.
Highly sensitive people, who have an added gift of discernment, live with caring deeply and coming across as standoffish. They house the clashing traits of humility and superiority as they deal with what is going on beneath the surface.
Part of learning to live with discernment is intuiting which is more life-giving: speaking up or prayerfully holding the information. With discernment, we have many opportunities to develop our inner lives.
The puzzling piece of preparing to voice what we sense, is readying for triggering reactions. What may begin with simply rotating a stone can quickly turn to exposing all the bugs taking shelter underneath.
So, how can we know whether to involve ourselves outwardly or not?
Questions to ask:
What is my motive?
In the end, who will gain? A defense attorney shows mercy to the one, a prosecuting attorney, for the many. Holding both perspectives creates an interesting tension that being self-absorbed disallows.
Am I seeking personal justice from an old wound, showing off, welding control or exhibiting mercy?
Am I prepared to be humbled?
How will I respond should an individual take the encounter wrongly? Can I trust in the unfolding of all things working for good for both the other people involved and myself?
When we live from Sacred within, we have a greater capacity to offer space to circumstances and people, while also challenging hindrances. Judgment and discernment can appear similar to the recipient and worlds apart to the one who thinks what s/he has discerned will make life better.
If our first question is, should I involve myself outwardly, a second ought to follow close behind. How much do I value personal development?
Though sharing discernment can lead to changes in other people, frequently, it circles around to our own growth. Often, sensing subtleties in outer situations happens unexpectedly. Purifying our intentions comes through humility, and sharpening self-discernment, one decision at a time. Eventually, it all comes back to the Sacred within.
Sacred Ruminations*
What rises up, in you, when you consider discernment?