Discernment, Decision Making and the Gandhi Test

In an Empire Club Foundation speech, Body Shop founder, Anita Roddick, explained an importance principle that applies to decision making.

Roddick said:

“In short ... do just what Mahatma Gandhi said: ‘Whenever you are in doubt apply the following test-Recall the face of the poorest and weakest man you have seen and ask yourself if the step you contemplate is going to be of any use to him. Will he gain anything by it? Will it restore him a control over his own life and destiny?’”

Dr Geoff Pound

Image: Mahatma Gandhi

F W Boreham: Dreams and Discernment

The dream may convince the dreamer; but it is of no evidential value to anybody but the dreamer.

When Mr. [John] Wesley returned from his fruitless visit to America, the ship anchored in the evening. In the roadstead lay another vessel just about to sail for America. Mr. Wesley learned that Mr. [George] Whitefield was on board that vessel. He was very distressed; for he particularly desired to have Mr. Whitefield's company in England. Early next morning, he sent a messenger by a boat to the other ship. ‘Tell Mr. Whitefield,’ he said, ‘that I have had a dream during the night and that it has been made clear to me that he is not to go to America!’

George Whitefield received the message and paced the deck for a moment or two in deep thought. ‘Go back to Mr. Wesley,’ he said to the messenger, ‘and say that, if God had wished me to turn back, God would have given me the dream! Why should He send the dream to Mr. Wesley?’ And he calmly went on with his tour.

F W Boreham, A Late Lark Singing (London: The Epworth Press, 1945), 189.

Images: John Wesley and George Whitefield.

Discernment Percolates Towards Passion

Our vocation may not always be ‘beer and skittles’ but there is a sense in which discernment follows the path of our passions.

I thought about this when I went to buy some coffee from a coffee importer in Coburg, Melbourne.

This man in his seventies told me how he had built up the business for over 30 years. He sold the business at 65, thinking how good it would be to retire but he missed it so badly. He’d wake up every morning wanting to be down at the shop, blending the beans, grinding the coffee, smelling the aroma. He got an opportunity to buy the business back and he’s at it again. He was waxing eloquent, in English and Italian as he made up a brew.

To say that coffee was this man’s passion is an understatement!

Is what we are doing as a teacher, a gardener, a sewer, a baker, a counselor or a barista something that is a passion—the desire of the heart?

Discerning the right direction involves tuning into that which we are most passionate about.

Dr Geoff Pound

More on the theme of Discernment and Passion is in this chapter:
Delights and Desires of the Heart,in Making Life Decisions

Image: The passion of a barista

Gordon Moyes: Discernment by Closed Doors

Dr Gordon Moyes, who used to lead the largest church in Australia and who more recently has been a politician in the New South Wales parliament, told the House of this turn of events, when giving his inaugural speech:

“That flowed on to what was a very remarkable event in our life; an event that changed our life completely. It was the day that John F. Kennedy was shot.”

“Traditionally people say they remember where they were at the time of that tragic event. I remember where I was very clearly. I was in the United States Consulate, here in Australia, where we were about to have our visas stamped. I had been appointed to do postgraduate study in the United States of America.”

“When the shots rang out in Dallas, Texas, the doors at the consulate were shut and the United States Embassy went into very high activity. People were thrown out the doors and papers went everywhere, and with them went our visas, our work permits, our passports, our chest x-rays and a whole lot of other stuff. The result was that the boat upon which we were to travel, together with all our clothes, personal possessions and belongings, sailed to America—but we did not.”

Gordon Moyes. ‘Inaugural Speech to Parliament’, New South Wales, Australia, 30 October 2002.

More on the open and closed doors factor can be found in this chapter of the online book, Making Life Decisions: Journey in Discernment.

Dr Geoff Pound

Image: Gordon Moyes.

Boreham on the Promise of Divine Guidance

“I will guide you with my eye.” Psalm 32:8

Many have come to adore the priceless boon of the divine guidance. When the time comes to move, He leads the way! If the time has come for striking camp and moving on, He always finds some perfectly simple and perfectly natural means of indicating His will.

He may not always give the Sign of the Fleece as He did to Gideon, or the Sign of the Flowers as He did to Aaron when He made the dry rod blossom; or the Sign of the Food as He did to Peter in his approach to the house of Cornelius; but by some sign, suited to the seeker and his special circumstances, God will find a means of directing those who earnestly desire His guidance. Some pillar of cloud will precede them in the daytime; some pillar of fire will blaze on their horizon in the night. To those who are willing to follow the gleam, there will always come a kindly light to lead.

‘I will guide you!’ He says. He even tells me how. ‘I will guide thee with mine eye!’

I have seen a noble dog sit at his master's feet, intently gazing into his master's eyes, for the faintest intimation of his will. The words obviously mean that I am to live very near to Him—in perfect accord with Him—my eyes riveted upon His.

And to those who enter into that rapt and sacred intimacy—such an intimacy as the disciples tasted in the Upper Room—the path that it is their wisdom and their happiness to tread will always be made unmistakably clear. ‘Arise, let us go hence!’

F W Boreham, Cliffs of Opal, pp 157-58.

Image: “I have seen a noble dog sit at his master's feet, intently gazing into his master's eyes, for the faintest intimation of his will.”

Discernment No Quick Fix

Isn’t there a great interest in knowing our future? There’s an amazing curiosity about finding life directions—knowing what to do in a particular situation?

I discovered at a bookshop recently a book entitled The Book of Answers by Carol Bolt.

How to Manage this Book
There aren’t too many books that come with a set of instructions but this one has them on the back cover. It says:

* Hold the closed book in your hand
* Take 10-15 seconds to concentrate on your question.
* Questions should be phrased Closed-End e.g. Is the job I’m applying for the right one? Or “Should I travel this weekend?”
* Then, while visualizing or speaking your question, place one hand palm down on the book’s front cover and stroke the edge of the pages, back to front.
* When you sense the time is right, open the book and there will be your answer.
* Repeat the process for as many questions as you have.

What a novel idea for a book!

It costs $25 which I thought was very steep. Let me tell you the sorts of answers it contains.

If I picked the book up early tomorrow morning, and asked the question, “Will I get breakfast in bed this morning?” I might stroke the pages and open it at page three which reads: “Don’t bet on it!”

Or if I asked the question, “Should I get out of bed now?” these are some of the likely answers:
1. Adopt an adventurous attitude.
2. Don’t bet on it.
3. Follow the advice of experts.
4. You could find yourself unable to compromise
5. Your actions will improve things.
6. Focus on your home life.
7. Investigate and then enjoy it.
8. Definitely.
9. It will remain unpredictable.
10. Absolutely not.
11. Explore it with playful curiosity.
12. Be delightfully sure of it.
13. Better to wait.
14. It seems assured.
15. Do it early.
16. Keep it to yourself.
17. Startling events may occur as a result.
18. You will need to accommodate.
19. The answer may come to you in another language.
20. Doubt it.

I noticed that at the bookshop it was grouped with all the zany books at the counter. At Amazon.com it was cross-referenced with books on the future and books of humor!

Discernment is a discipline not a quick fix.

Discernment involves a journey of discovery not a single step.

Discernment involves a wrestling with the questions not the rubbing of a literary Aladdin’s Lamp.

Discernment is a partnership not the receiving of ready-made orders.

Dr Geoff Pound

Image: Front cover of The Book of Answers

What People Are Saying About New Book: 'Making Life Decisions'

Here is a sampling of feedback from those who have had a quick look at my new, free, online book, Making Life Decisions: Journey in Discernment and at the end some responses from the author.


“I will certainly make this known via my regular newsletter and I am sure there will be some uptake as pastors are always looking for resources to stimulate thinking etc as you well know.”
New Zealand

“Thanks for publishing it in cyber-space for all to use! I'll share it around our team.”
Melbourne

“What a fascinating book concept! And how very practical! I must say this is the first time I've seen blogging used to publish a book, but it seems quite effective. I have placed a link to the book on the Center's links page, as well as in our Resources section. I'm making a note to also mention it in the next Bulletin.”
Atlanta

“Thanks for the gift! I've passed it onto people of our church.”
Melbourne

“Looks very interesting... and I will pass it on to friends.”
Sharjah

“I don't even know how to operate a blog!”
UAE

“Thanks Geoff. I like the format ... and I never ever ever thought I'd ever ever ever see a Peter Cook and Dudley Moore transcript in a Christian book (with or without the proviso: 'This dialogue has been shorn of a couple of expletives to make the reflection palatable to a wider readership.'). This reality alone makes the book attractive.”
St Andrews, Scotland

“I was talking with JR yesterday about seeking appropriate training for our Pastoral Elders in their role including 'praying with people seeking discernment'. After reading Parker Palmer's 'Let your life speak' I felt inspired to find some Quakers who could train us in their discernment process. Could your book be appropriate for such training or is it better aimed at the individual seeking discernment? Either way, I'm looking forward to learning from it.”
Melbourne

“What a brilliant idea. And so lovely of you to share all your hard work for free.”
Melbourne via Facebook

“Thanks a lot for sending us your book. Already three have asked for it to use. We will use it for our Home Group to try it out and hopefully we can get the Church Groups involved. The format is great.”
Thames, NZ

“There certainly seem to be a lot of fabulous resources you've collected and I'm looking forward to quietly working my way through it all myself.”
Sydney

“Thank you so much for thinking of me as you release your newest book. I am forwarding information first about your e-book link to my good friend whom I have introduced to you already. He has a website for youths that attracts hundreds of thousands of hits all over the world. Your e-book will be an instant hit & blessing if he can place it on his website and you can also put a link on your sites… I will read your book carefully. Many thanks for preparing to leaving a wonderful legacy through your writing.”
Singapore

“I think I will use your book for me and my office staff while we meet everyday. We will explore possibility to translate into Italian but I'll let you know. We all need some guidance for the present and the future, I do look for God's guidance a lot in the work (service) I do in these days. Thank you for letting your reflections be part of my reflections, your search become also somehow mine.”
Rome, Italy

“Very user friendly and very attractive and professional. It looks like it contains some priceless wisdom, and I look forward to checking it out. Thanks for thinking of me.”
California

“Thank you for this book – well done, it looks excellent and is most timely. We have just begun a 20 week discernment lead time for making the decision re the property at the end of March. I will offer this book to people and perhaps use it as a basis for our open prayer times at church – and am always on the look out for more stories.”
Melbourne

“It is a wonderful idea to have this online book! I am sure that it would be very much appreciated for many people. I had a look on the index of the 40 days and it seems very interesting. Do you think that would be possible to use if I translate some topics into Spanish?”
Mexico

“Sounds fascinating.”
Wellington, NZ

“You have been a busy beaver. What with all the stuff your doing and you managed to write this as well.”
Melbourne

“Thanks for this; respond warmly to the title and initial read. It is always a crucial area and believe will be of great benefit. Will be very happy to look at how I may be able to promote this.”
Sydney

“Looks really interesting. I'm printing it off to take home and will look at it there - I have also passed it on to a couple of friends.”
Auckland


“Great to get our ‘free gift’ yesterday. Unfortunately, we are on dial-up so it would take ages to download (besides, we seldom go "on line") and also our printer is wonky, and would probably conk out after just a few pages! But...are we deterred? NO! I have forwarded it on to a good friend who, for a fee, will download and print it off for me! I am sure having paid a little for it will make the "free book" even more precious in my sight! So, by the end of this week, we should have our copy which we look forward very much to reading.”
Adelaide

“Thanks very much for sharing this resource!”
South Carolina

“Thanks for your generosity…. Many of the quotes are from my favourite authors/writers also. Maybe we have something in common too....I will enjoy reading your book- I appreciated your input into my own discernment when at Whitley.”
Melbourne

“Heartfelt congratulations on this new book. I am hoping to read this book sometime in the near future.”
Melbourne

“The topic of your book is certainly very relevant and we look forward to a closer look.”
Melbourne

“Appreciate you for making this freely available for people who ask ‘What am I supposed to do with my life?’ I will use it myself and I have forwarded to friends.”
Singapore

“RS let me know of the book, and I have already used it in our Christmas letter!”
Memphis

“Thanks for your very nice gift. It will be very helpful for me.”
Dhaka, Bangladesh

“Will look forward to your book with anticipation. I am always looking for suggestions for short talks to give at assemblies and on other occasions so many thanks for keeping me in the loop.”
School Chaplain, Melbourne

“Hi Geoff, thanks for the gift and the work that lies behind it.”
Christchurch

“Thank you very much for your 'early Christmas gift'. It's quite pertinent timing for us… Some reading and contemplation on discernment and decision-making is very timely! Finding direction is never quite as easy as one would like it to be. So, thank you, and we look forward to going through it.”
NZ

“Loved the cover photo.”
Melbourne

“I downloaded and will peruse it. Looks great, and I’ve passed on the information to others.”
Sydney

“The book sounds great - I'll look forward to reading it. I'll also pass it on to others.”
Adelaide

“Just had a look through it. What a great resource for students!”
Theology teacher, Sydney

“I praise the Lord for this wonderful gift from Him through you! I will surely use it as devotional and source of illustrations in our Bible Studies.”
Dubai

“Will review this when I get a little spare time which is evading me at the moment.”
London

“Thank you so much for your letter and the online book, I will certainly read and try to print out if possible.”
Tripura, India

“Thank you very much, Geoff.”
Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

“But a note of appreciation for your gift; it is not often you get something for nothing which really is worthwhile. Almost makes me wish we were continuing with our Home Group.”
Auckland

“We can only hazard a guess re the book. It’s certainly a fascinating topic and something we have all grappled with during our life journey.”
Melbourne


Mainstream Baptists
Baptists for Separation of Church and State and for Compassionate Justice
Saturday, November 24, 2007

Making Life Decisions
A Baptist Pastor and Theologian from New Zealand has written a very fine devotional book titled "Making Life Decisions: Journey In Discernment." You can read it online and follow the spiritual exercises that way or you can download the entire document and have it on your hard drive to print out at your leisure.Learning to make decisions, guided by the Holy Spirit, is so very important in the Christian life and so terribly neglected. I recommend this very highly.
posted by Jim at 11:51 AM


SANSBLOGUE

Discernment and making decisions
The Theologians without Borders blog mentions a new online resource/book about Decision Making and Discernment it was written by TWN's Dr Geoff Pound. Geoff is a Kiwi Baptist pastor, who among other roles was principal of Whitley College in Melbourne (Australia) having previously been a consultant to Australian Baptists. Through his own varied life journey, and through assisting individuals and communities discover where God was leading Geoff has gained wisdom about making decisions and about discernment. So now he's written the book! The material is organised into forty "days" and seven group studies. It is not called 40 Days of Discernment, probably not to infringe on someone else's copyright ;-) though the image of Jesus' "40 days in the wilderness runs through much of the book.

The material for each "day" is similarly structured containing…..

If you know someone, or better still some group, who need to work through complex decisions, or who want to nourish the gift of discernment please point them to this book. It is free and online. Geoff is talking of making PDF files available for printout, and may even offer a print version for those who want it.Since this resource is free, there is no advertising budget, so please if you take a look and like it, make a link or tell your friends, because it's "word of mouth" that will get it used.


Responses from Geoff Pound

In a letter to one reader who was asking how the virtual launch was going I said:
“I have been heartened by the feedback thus far. A virtual launch has been an interesting experiment and one I would do again.



The book has been viewed already by people from 20+ countries.

People have appreciated the ease of forwarding the book to others, especially to people who they know who are at the crossroads.

Many people have appreciated the issue of access. It's free! This is impt as my contacts are increasingly international and among the poor.

One Baptist staff team in Italy is working through the book and translating it into Italian as they go.

A theological teacher in Mexico is looking at translating it into Spanish.

I am hoping that my Chinese translator friend who is translating some articles and essays by F W Boreham and publishing Boreham books for the Chinese world will take some time to publish parts of this new book for the 850+ million readers of Mandarin.

I have had a letter or two bemoaning that they are on dial up and their printer is wonky but one guy has paid his mate to print it off.

I think the advantages of an online book will far outweigh the disadvantages.”

Thanks for your feedback. Please pass on the link to others and make a link on your web sites as appropriate.

Geoff Pound
Making Life Decisions: Journey in Discernment

Image: The front cover of Making Life Decisions: Journey in Discernment.

Now I Become Myself

On the journey of discernment to making the crucial decisions in life, part of the rubble that must be cleared away is the expectations placed on us by parents and teachers who would like us to be particular kinds of people.

Sometimes we are driven by the fear of failing to become what others hope we will become.

May Sarton in a poem clarifies this challenge when she writes:

“Now I become myself.
It’s taken time, many years and places.
I have been dissolved and shaken,
Worn other people’s faces….”

‘Now I become myself…’ Can’t you hear the relief that comes when we free ourselves from the expectations of others, when we no longer wear other people’s faces?

Source: May Sarton, “Now I Become Myself,” in Collected Poems, 1930-1973 (New York: Norton, 1974), 156 cited in Palmer, Parker J. Let Your Life Speak: Listening for the Voice of Vocation. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Inc., 2000, 9.

Dr Geoff Pound

Image: May Sarton

Other articles on being free from the expectations of others can be found at:
Listen to Your Motives: The Story of Parker Palmer
Discerning Our Thoughts: The Story of Warren Bennis
Our Expectations: Story told by Robert McAfee Brown
Expectations of Others: Story of Chaim Potok.

Discernment and those Things that Happen Accidentally

Writer F W Boreham says in one of his books:

I am writing here at Hobart. And Hobart will never cease to honour the illustrious memory of Sir John Franklin. He was one of Tasmania's early Governors.

Franklin Square is within a few hundred yards of this study of mine, and in the centre of the Square is a fine bronze statue of Sir John. I never look upon it without recalling that seaside holiday of his, in the course of which, the shallows having played with the shallows, the deeps began to call to the deeps. He walked up and down the sands looking out on the infinite expanse of water. He climbed the broken cliffs, and, shading his eyes with his hands, watched the great ships vanish over the distant sky line. The unseen taunted his imagination. It turned the whole course of his life. It was the accident of that timely holiday by the seaside that gave Sir John Franklin to Tasmania and to the world at large.

His parents had designed him for the Church, and it was the height of his ambition to become a bishop. But the sight of the sea awoke other instincts within him. Distant voices called him and distant fingers beckoned, until, yielding himself to the spirit of adventure, he became one of the most celebrated navigators of all time. And at the cost of his own life he opened up the frozen North to the more successful explorers who followed.

Source: F W Boreham, ‘The Call of the Deep’, The Golden Milestone (London: Charles H Kelly, 1915), 147-148.

Image: Sir John Franklin; statue in Waterloo Place, London.

Steve Allen: Discernment Often Comes From Doing

Sometimes finding a direction does not come by sitting and contemplating but by getting involved. Giving it a shot!

Have you ever been press-ganged into service? Just pounced on and told to do something? It can be a flop but sometimes we discover gifts and passion we never knew were there.

This is what happened in the life and comedy career of Steve Allen. Read the context as well as the story of him being forced into service:

Steve Allen (1921-2000), originator and first host of The Tonight Show in 1954, the father of TV talk shows, and the man whose routines (including Carson's 'Great Carnac') have been liberally appropriated by Johnny Carson, Jay Leno, David Letterman and others:

"[The unknown Steve] Allen come to sudden prominence in 1951 as a replacement for Arthur Godfrey on his Talent Scouts show by making a shambles of the sedate little show--steeping his Lipton tea bag in a cup of soup, pouring the soup into Godfrey's ukulele, and intentionally mixing up the names of the contest winners. ...

"[On The Tonight Show, a] turning point for Allen came the night that Doris Day failed to show up for an interview and Allen was left to his own comic devices with twenty-five minutes of airtime on his hands, which he filled by interviewing people in the studio audience, lugging an old stand-up mike up and down the aisles. 'The physical thing of carrying this big mike around the room helped to get laughs. I just horsed around, like with my pals. That opened up a lot of possibilities.' He later wrote: 'I don't recollect what was said during the next twenty-five minutes, but I do know that I had never gotten such laughs before.' ... Allen had discovered his natural ability to play it as it lays, to talk without a prepared script or format. 'For two years I had been slaving away at the typewriter ... with only moderate success. Now I had learned that audiences would laugh much more readily at an ad-libbed quip, even though it might not be the pound-for-pound equivalent of a prepared joke.' ...

"It was ... his ear for language, an ability to pick up on mangled syntax or an unlikely phrasing that triggered his funny retorts (woman in the balcony to Allen: 'May I have your autograph?' Allen 'Only if you have a very long pencil'). ... Allen, ever the scholar, once remarked: 'English is an easy language with which to turn normal conversation into nonsense, because it is so full of idiomatic expressions which automatically turn into jokes when subjected to straight-faced analysis. To me, the English language is one big straight-line.' ... When a lady in the audience asked him, 'Do they get your program in Philadelphia?' he said, 'They see it but they don't get it.' ... He was sometimes accused of setting up innocent people, yet quite the reverse was true, he insisted. 'When I say to a guest, 'What is your name?' and he answers with calm reassurance, "Boston, Massachusetts,' he is the funny one and I his willing straight man. Were I to talk for a million years I could never say anything funnier than 'Boston, Massachusetts' in that situation. ...

"What Allen found in these roving interviews was a way to unlock TV's structured format by using its formal facade as a bottomless source for his whimsical turn of mind. ... Allen was the ideal bedtime host. Indeed, one night he played the piano in his pajamas, explaining that when the show was over he wanted to go straight to bed"

Gerald Nachman, Seriously Funny, Back Stage Books, Copyright 2004 by Gerald Nachman, pp. 160- 165.

This excerpt is supplied by Delancey Place that sends out daily portions that are most helpful for communicators.

Image: Steve Allen

Discernment like an Archaeological Dig

The task of personal and corporate discernment is like the work of an archaeologist.

Discernment is like the archaeologist who journeys and searches for something not always apparent. The archaeologist removes the rubble to discover the treasure that is already there.

Don’t push this image too hard because if you do you’ll arrive at the conclusion that our vocation and our directions are fixed and ready made.

Discernment best involves a divine-human partnership in which we are invited into a conversation with our Creator, where vocation and direction are discovered together.

Archaeologists don’t come in with bulldozers and hob nail boots and similarly, discernment needs to be approached with great sensitivity and care.

Discernment, like an archaeological dig, requires great time and patience.

In contrast to so many contemporary methods for finding out the future and decision making, discernment is rarely a penny in the slot event. It’s more often a process in which things are revealed through time. It’s like cooking with a crock pot, not a microwave, in which things need to simmer for a good while.

Discernment is a dynamic, ongoing discovery rather than presenting oneself to get a static print out.

Dr Geoff Pound
Making Life Decisions: Journey in Discernment

Image: “Discernment is like an archaeological dig.”

Passion and Purpose

In one of his poems, W H Auden expresses something of the passion that’s displayed when people are living out the purpose for which they are born:

"You need not see what someone is doing
To know if it is his vocation,
You only have to watch his eyes:
A cook mixing his sauce, a surgeon
Making a primary incision,
A clerk completing a bill of lading
Wear the same expression,
Forgetting themselves in a function."

Cited in Warren Bennis, Managing the Dream: Reflections on Leadership and Change (Cambridge, Mass.: Perseus, 2000,) xxvii

Geoff Pound

Image: “A surgeon making a primary incision.”

That’s Not What Ships Are Made For

A wall poster pictures a ship on the ocean and it is right in the midst of a turbulent storm.

The inscription reads:

"A ship in a harbour is safe, but that's not what ships are built for!"

Launching out in life with all that we are and immersing ourselves in the service of others is a risky, dangerous and costly business.

When we launch out in the spirit of adventure and into the great unknown, that is when we are doing we have been made for.

Geoff Pound Making Life Decisions

Image: “…but that's not what ships are built for!”