Matthew Spotts, SJ, didn’t particularly “like” his four-month stint working on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota, yet he thought it was what God wanted him to do. He writes, “discernment, is far, far more complicated than figuring out what makes us happy on a superficial level, figuring what we ‘like.’”
Liking or not liking something isn’t a primary way of discerning what God’s will is. It’s not even a primary way of figuring out whether we’re experiencing consolation–remember, the primary definition of consolation is a movement that brings us closer to God, a movement that tends to increase faith, hope and love. A movement of repentance for something we’ve done wrong betters our relationship with God and increases our faith, hope and love, even though it’s not particularly pleasant. Most of us can think of difficult experiences in our lives that may not have been at all pleasant but still made us deeper, wiser, stronger and more loving people. That too can be a consolation.
Sign up for dotMagis updates in an RSS reader
Sign up for dotMagis updates by e-mail