What? Where?

Just recently I gave a little talk on discernment and prayer. At the time, I saw it as us simply finding our way through life, looking for the reason that we are here. Simply, what is my calling in life? What job am I called to do? We are all called to something, whether it is being a priest or religious, doctor, nurse, teacher, police officer, politician, or something else. And it is through prayer and a close relationship with God that we are able to stay ordered towards what is good and make the right decisions.

Oh, but it is so much more than that. As Psalm 139 shows, God knows me more than I know myself. He created me and knew me even before he formed me in my mother’s womb. He knows all my thoughts and feelings. He knows what I am going to say before I even say it. He is in my innermost core as my existence is dependent upon him. Nothing can ever separate me from him completely. In fact, my soul, my complete self, can only be totally consumed by God and nothing else.

Discernment is not simply staying ordered towards God so that I make the right decision. Rather, it is coming to find God’s thoughts which show me the way to take. God knows where I am to go. He just wants to show me the way. But how can he show me the way if I do not open the door and let him in? “How precious to me are your thoughts, O God” (Ps 139:17). God is constantly thinking of me and where I should go. So why should his thoughts not be precious to me? Why should they not be more precious to me than anything in the world?

But this isn’t just for me; it is for everyone. What is the most precious thing to you?