My Dear Reader,
If you spend enough time around Christians, one question appears again and again.
How do I know what God wants me to do?
People ask it about careers, relationships, difficult conversations, and moments when the path forward feels uncertain.
Most of us approach the question in a similar way. We assume that if we could only recognize the right signal, notice the right circumstance, or feel the right confirmation, we would finally understand God’s guidance.
But the early Christian tradition often approached this question in a very different way.
The Desert Fathers believed that most Christians were asking the wrong question entirely.
Their answer to the problem of discernment did not begin with learning how to identify signs from heaven. It began somewhere far more surprising.
And once you see it, the entire way we think about spiritual guidance begins to change.
The reflection below explores this ancient insight and why it may be one of the most important lessons for Christians trying to live faithfully in a chaotic world.
If you would like to continue the journey, the full reflection continues below.
In Faith and Gratitude,
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