The Limits of Discernment

Ecclesiastes 3:11

Ecclesiastes remains one of my favorite books of the Bible. His project is mostly negative, breaking down our normal way of thinking about God, the meaning of life, and our place in the world. In many ways contradictory of much of the Biblical message, I find Ecclesiastes a refreshing and brave principle of self-criticism within scripture. Ecclesiastes itself cannot be taken uncritically, and I side with other books over and against it on many points. However, the picture would not be complete without it, and scriptural revelation is a whole-Bible experience. Ecclesiastes is one of the strongest arguments for the approach to scripture I laid out in my book CONVERSATIONAL THEOLOGY.

In this passage Ecclesiastes shows us the limits of discernment. We may be able to identify God's call, but we can only ever guess at its purpose. God's overarching plan is just too big, and His mind too alien, for us to understand where we fit in the overall. Think about it: God may send us a vision to be at a certain place at a certain time not to stop some great tragedy or perform some great deed, but to, say, keep you from a certain street corner at a certain time so that a car isn't delayed and two people who are meant to meet can.

There are probably countless ways in which God is guiding the universe in ways we can't imagine. Failure is no evidence that Gods Call was not genuine. We cannot determine what the function of our calling even was. No, success is not the measure of the genuineness of Gods presence in our lives. We can be called to what the world would call failure. We don't even know the standard by which God is judging failure or success. No, that isn't where the meaning of our lives is found.

In the end we do what we are called to do for as long as we are called to do it because it is God who calls. We get messages and visions and we can discern their content, but we can only rarely discern their true meaning.