Empathy - The Discerning Life Series
by Thomas B. Grosh IV, D.Min., CMDA Northeast Regional Director
When we are in the midst of a discerning life, we continuously ask the Lord one fundamental question: How is God inviting me (us) to live for him today in my (our) context as I (we) practice a preference for God and notice God in everything? Our discernment is the ongoing clarification of that invitation, and our response is the result of how well we attend, notice, pray, consider, decide, and act. Hopefully the response will be faithful to God’s invitation (121).
In Empathy: Spiritual Discernment is Communal *, Stephen A. Macchia emphasizes that Context Matters.
What is the condition of the soil of your soul? (121)
I confess that it was during my second reading of The Discerning Life: An Invitation to Notice God in Everything that this question in Chapter 6 caused me to pause. Yes, the parable of the sower, the seed, and the soils (which he terms the parable of the soul) in Matthew 13 has been one to which I have returned many times in personal reflection and teaching.
But what is the condition of the soil of my soul at this moment after a full summer of change and the challenges of the fall ahead? Am I hearing the word and understanding it (v. 23)? Or am I listening to other voices which have been given ground due to a lack of margin during a good, but very busy season?
The invitation here is to be like humus, good earth, open to receive the seek of faith from the hand of the sower. In his soil resides a noble and good heart. Here, the word is heard, received, and through perseverance it produces a fruitful crop. Humus is the fertile ground of humility, where deep within the soul there is openness and preparedness for the seeds of truth to reside.
Jesus invites his hearers into a context of humility and grace, receptivity and faithfulness. All other contexts would lead them into pathways of distraction, depression, and destruction. This is the wake-call of this parable. What path are you on today?
Together let us find our rest and hope in God. More from this chapter when time permits…
Keep worshiping, fixing your eyes on, and pressing on in the upward hope of Christ Jesus. To God be the glory!
