Oh Discernment, Where Are You?

when emotion prevails over common sense

Discernment  

Where did you go?  

I used to sense your presence in many of the churches I visited, but now?  

Where are you? 

I was driving into town on our little two-lane country road late yesterday morning. A glorious spring day on tap. Sunny, temperate, and a light breeze.  

As I came around the bend, there lay a snake in the road. Partially coiled I drove over him without running him over. Before I realized his presence, I nearly squashed him flat.  

We have several varieties of snakes here, but two of them appear terribly similar. We have lots of rattlesnakes, and in the last eighteen years there has not been a year that we have not seen several alive and several run over in the road. 

When I backed up to take a closer look the snake was so still, I thought he might be dead. But the question was, what kind of snake was it? 

You see, gopher snakes and rattlesnakes can look remarkably similar. However, using a little discernment one can rapidly identify the serpents.  

The first places to look are at the head and at the tail. A diamond shaped head tells you it is a rattlesnake, and if there are rattles on the tail, you can be sure it is. If the head is about the same as the body, and there are no rattles, well, you have found a gopher snake.  

Using a little discernment is all it takes to know who is in danger, you, or the snake.  

Had it been a rattlesnake, I would have left it in the road for someone else to dispatch. Being that it was a gopher snake, my response was more humane. Gopher snakes are harmless, and they eat mice, rats, gopher squirrels, and bugs like grasshoppers. They are hugely beneficial reptiles. 

Compassion and Discernment

Why would I have compassion for one and not the other? One is potentially lethal, while the other is not.  

 And of some have compassion, making a difference: And others save with fear, pulling [them] out of the fire; hating even the garment spotted by the flesh. [Jude 1:22-23 KJV] 

The gopher snake was in the path of danger. It needed help even though it was incognizant of its peril. The very next vehicle on the road might mean its demise. Grabbing a dead stick off an oak tree I lifted that snake out of the road and into the ditch where it gladly slithered away quickly.  

Discernment.

Jude in his letter writes that we are to save some as out of the fire, hating even the garment spotted by the flesh, and on some have compassion.  

In the Church when we use a little discernment, you notice two types of people. One preacher I heard describe us as either “saints or “aint’s” 

“Then shall ye return, and discern between the righteous and the wicked, between him that serves God and him that serves him not.” Malachi 3:18 

We are all sinners, some of us are redeemed and some only appear redeemed. We are called to discernment.  

Not too many years have passed since a book was published and followed with a movie. The church at large went nuts and drooled all over the story. An emotionally engaging and sentimental best seller, they gushed over it.