Discerning

¹⁴If anyone will not welcome you or listen to your words, shake the dust off your feet when you leave that home or town...¹⁶I am sending you out like sheep among wolves. Therefore be as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves. 
       Matt. 10:14, 16

Judgmentalism and Discernment are like twin sisters: One is ugly as homemade sin and the other is a knockout beauty. Yesterday's post looked at judgmentalism--and she's still ugly. But, discernment is a beautiful thing in the life of someone who prays for it, exercises it, and reaps the benefits of it.

We have to be shrewd, even cunning, when it comes to choosing what streams we drink from, what spiritual/relational/intellectual food we ingest and metabolize, and what relationships we cultivate. But, the line between judgmental and discerning is hairline-thin. It's a matter of the heart.

Judgmental

The army of God is the only one who shoots its own wounded.

That statement hits just a little too close to home. Not because of wrongs I've suffered or wounds I've received, though. It hits so close because of wrongs I've committed and wounds I've inflicted. I've done it: Judging another person by deciding in my own mind what their motives, insecurities, and intentions are based solely on what they do.

When God chose David as the second king of Israel, he told Samuel during the vetting process that it's people who judge by appearances, but God examines the heart (1 Sam. 16:7). Whenever I have judged exclusively by externals, I've noticed that I'm excluding several significant internal realities:

1. The actual heart condition of the other person. Jeremiah 17:9 says that no one can understand the heart. That's God's job.
2. Hurt people hurt people. Whenever someone lashes out or attacks someone else for no reason they are responding out of their own woundedness. MONSTER CAVEAT: Explaining their attack in NO WAY excuses it.
3. It's possible--just possible--that I don't have all the facts. Maybe, just maybe, that person has genuinely prayed and sought God's heart and is following the leading God gave her. Maybe, there's a calling on her life that I can't or haven't yet considered that would explain why she does what she does.
4. Judging others' judgmentalism is...oh, what's the word?...judgmental! I can get haughty in a hurry when I've been wronged or someone close to me has been wronged.
5. The task of judging others has already been assigned--and I didn't get the gig. God promises that He will set everything to rights. He will account for every injustice, from the Holocaust to my haughtiness and everything in between.
6. Judging others wastes time that I will be held accountable for what I DO with it. A lot of people don't yet know Jesus and the extravagance of his love. What in the world am I doing wasting a nano-second on a job that's not mine? Lives are at stake.

Tomorrow, I'll post about judgmentalism's beautiful cousin that is separated by a very, very fine line: discernment.

Where do you see judgmentalism rear its hideously ugly, green head in your life?

It IS Who You Know

For years, cynics have said, "It's not what you know, it's WHO you know," meaning that qualified people are passed over by people who know the right people to get promoted/noticed/advanced. And, the cynics are right. Just not in the way they think they are.

WHO you know really does matter. Who you follow, who you lead, who you trust, who you doubt--these things matter so much more than your expertise or technical know-how. I don't mean for a second that expertise or skill is insignificant. It's critically important. If you have no skill or offer no value, it'll be pretty hard to gain and hold people's attention.

But, the #1 aptitude/ability/requirement of leadership is DISCERNMENT. You must discern people's abilities, agendas, non-verbal responses, and the like if you're going to accurately evaluate whether or not their talents are congruent with the task at hand.

The best way to develop discernment: Follow, lead, trust, and doubt the right people at the right times. Spur Leadership Test: Identify ONE person in your sphere of influence right now you are following...leading...trusting...doubting. Are they the RIGHT ones? If not, what can you do this week to get the right ones around you?