When Certainty Isn’t the Same as Discernment
The other morning in my Quiet Time, I sat with the Scripture passage for the day:
“But if your eyes are unhealthy, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness!”
—Matthew 6:23
What? I thought. How can light be darkness? Light is light. Darkness is darkness. How can something be both light and dark simultaneously?
I carried that question with me throughout the morning, trying to figure out what in the heck Jesus meant.
Later that day, I brought the question to Chris, a spiritual mentor.
How Can Light Be Darkness?
“I can’t get this phrase out of my head,” I told Chris. “How can the light within us be darkness?”
Chris paused for a moment.
“Maybe Jesus is using a paradox to warn us that not everything we call light is actually light,” he said. “It might actually be darkness, and we don’t realize it.”
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“Well,” Chris said, “sometimes ego dresses itself up as wisdom. Sometimes fear calls itself caution. Sometimes our desires convince us they’re God’s will. And sometimes certainty feels so strong we mistake it for discernment.”
Chris continued, “The danger isn’t just being in the dark. The real danger is being in the dark and thinking we’re seeing clearly.”
“So it’s like walking through a dark room,” I said. “If I know it’s dark, I’ll slow down. I’ll feel my way forward. But if I’m carrying a dim flashlight, I may think I can see clearly enough and still walk straight into a wall.”
Chris nodded. “Exactly. Sometimes the greatest darkness is believing we’re seeing clearly when we’re not.”
I’ve done that.
I’ve been sincere.
I’ve been passionate.
I’ve been certain.
And I’ve still been wrong.
Sometimes I’ve pushed forward because I felt a sense of urgency. Sometimes I’ve called my own desire, God’s will. Sometimes I’ve confused my need to be right with the movement of the Holy Spirit.
That’s what makes Jesus’ warning so unsettling. The danger isn’t only darkness.
The danger is thinking I’m walking in the light when I’m actually being led by ego, fear, desire, or certainty.
Certainty Is Not Discernment
As Chris and I talked, I thought about times when I was convinced I was moving in the right direction, only to discover later I was charging ahead more than stopping and listening for the movement of the Holy Spirit.
“I think that’s what trips me up,” I told Chris. “I can be sincere and still not be seeing clearly.”
“That’s right,” he said. “Sincerity matters. But sincerity and certainty don’t always equal discernment.”
Chris leaned forward in his chair.
“Certainty often wants to prove we’re right,” he said. “Discernment listens for God’s voice of love and wisdom, then seeks to follow it.”
“Hmm,” I said. “So certainty pushes me into action because I think I already know the answer. But discernment slows me down to ask, ‘God, what are You really saying?’”
Chris nodded. “Exactly. And that pause is where the Spirit has room to speak.”
As I listened to Chris, I realized how often I don’t want to pause. Sometimes I want God to bless what I’ve already decided. I want a holy stamp of approval on my plan.
But discernment asks me to slow down, listen, and let the Holy Spirit guide me instead of charging ahead with certainty.
What Discernment Really Is
Chris helped me understand discernment in a deeper way.
“Discernment is much more than decision-making,” he said. “It’s not just making a list of pros and cons or choosing the smartest option. It’s learning to notice the movement of God’s Spirit in your life and respond to it.”
That reminded me of Richard Hauser, S.J., who writes in Moving in the Spirit: Becoming a Contemplative in Action that the goal of the Christian life is to listen and respond to the movement of the Holy Spirit in our lives.
Discernment isn’t only about asking, “What should I do?”
It’s also about asking, “What’s moving me?”
Is it God or ego?
Love or fear?
The Holy Spirit or my need to be right?
The issue isn’t just whether I think I’m moving in the right direction.
The issue is what’s moving me.
What’s my motivation?
Am I being led by love, humility, courage, and peace?
Or am I being pushed by fear, control, pride, or urgency?
That’s where discernment begins.
Why Quiet Time Matters
Quiet Time is essential for discernment.
“You can’t discern well when your inner world is noisy,” Chris said.
That made sense.
When my mind is racing or my emotions are charged up, it’s hard to hear clearly. I’m more likely to react, force an answer, email too quickly, have the conversation too sharply, or mistake my own urgency for God’s voice.
Before I make a decision, send the email, have the conversation, or say yes to the invitation, I need to sit with God long enough for the noise in me to settle.
Quiet Time gives the noise inside me a chance to quiet down.
It creates space to be still.
To breathe.
To listen.
To notice what’s going on beneath the surface.
Some Discernment Questions
Chris suggested I begin with a few honest questions:
- What am I feeling?
- What am I afraid of?
- What am I trying to control?
- Where do I sense God’s peace?
- Where do I sense pressure or force?
Those questions help move me out of my spinning thoughts and into a space where I can listen for God’s voice of love and wisdom.
They help me move from reacting to listening.
Creating Guardrails for Discernment
Chris reminded me that while Quiet Time is for discerning the Holy Spirit’s movement, it isn’t the whole picture.
“None of us sees perfectly on our own,” he said.
That’s not always easy for me to admit. I like to think I’m self-aware. I like to think I can figure things out. But we all have blind spots. Ego, fear, desire, and certainty can cloud our vision.
That’s why Chris encouraged me to seek wise counsel from someone who loves God, loves me, and loves truth enough to ask: “Are you sure this is light?”
That question stayed with me.
Not as a shaming question. Not as a suspicious, second-guess-everything question. But as a loving, grounded invitation to see more clearly.
We all need guardrails for discernment. We need people who can help us listen more clearly when our own vision gets cloudy.
A spiritual mentor.
A spiritual director.
A spiritual friend.
A partner.
A pastor.
Seeking wise counsel doesn’t replace our responsibility to listen for God’s Spirit. It becomes a guardrail that helps us stay on the path when our vision is limited.
It helps us notice our blind spots. It helps us test what we think we see, so we don’t confuse our own certainty with God’s light.
How to Practice Discernment
Before our conversation ended, I asked Chris, “So what do I actually do with this? How do I tell the difference between what I think is God’s invitation and what God may actually be saying?”
Chris kept it simple.
“Discernment isn’t about forcing an answer,” he said. “It’s about creating space to listen.”
He offered four simple steps.
1. Pause and get quiet.
Set aside time to sit in the quiet.
Put your feet on the floor.
Take a few slow breaths.
Let the noise inside you settle.
You don’t have to force an answer.
Just create space to listen.
2. Notice what’s moving within you.
Ask yourself:
What am I feeling?
What am I afraid of?
What am I trying to control?
Is this thought coming from love or fear?
Am I open to being wrong?
These questions help reveal what’s happening beneath the surface.
3. Listen with your whole self.
Listen with your body, your heart, and your spirit.
Notice whether the movement within you feels:
Spacious or tight?
Gentle or frantic?
Loving or driven?
Freeing or controlling?
“God’s invitations often carry a quiet strength,” Chris said. “They may challenge you, but they don’t usually bully you. They may stretch you, but they tend to lead you toward the fruits of the Spirit: love, humility, courage, and peace.”
4. Seek wise counsel.
After listening, bring what you’re sensing to someone wise.
Not someone who will tell you what you want to hear, but someone who will help you see what you may not see on your own.
Someone who can lovingly ask:
“Are you sure this is light?”
That’s discernment.
Quiet listening.
Honest noticing.
Wise counsel.
Listening for God’s voice of love and wisdom and following the movement of the Spirit instead of letting your own desires, ego, and untested motivations guide you.
The Light That Is Truly Light
After sitting with Chris and pondering Jesus’ words, I understood how easy it is for me to think I’m following God’s will when I may actually be walking in the dark and not realize it.
So maybe Jesus’ warning isn’t so strange.
Maybe it’s mercy. It’s an invitation to pause before we charge ahead.
To ask whether the light we’re following is God’s light.
To pray for the grace of discernment.
To let wise people help us see what we can’t see on our own.
And slowly, with God’s help, we learn to walk in the light that is light—the light that illuminates our darkness and leads us toward love, humility, courage, and peace.
Have a blessed week, my friend.
May God give us the grace to pause, listen, and follow the light that is the Divine Light.
Your friend in the flow,
brian
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My new book, Divine Flow: Reclaiming the Lost Art of Contemplation for Everyday Life is officially out in the world and available to purchase!
Learn more about Divine Flow here: https://www.brianplachta.com/divine-flow-book-page
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