Discernment Diner

“I’m definitely going to get pho,” I announce when I walk into the Vietnamese restaurant with some friends. We sat down and received our menus, and the inevitable happened: I was suddenly overwhelmed by the choices and began to doubt what I knew I wanted. 

“Need a minute?” The waiter asks. 

“Yes, please,” I say even though I know what I want but I still have to read all 92 menu options to makes sure there is not something better. Guess what? I got the pho. The original classic number one thing on the entree page, and it was delicious.

We in our western culture are bombarded with choices. And we are blessed by them. Getting to chose where we live and work, where we get health care, where our kids go to school, what to buy at the grocery store, even down to what to order at the Vietnamese restaurant is a liberty that a lot of the world does not have. 

And here I am trying to make a choice about my future, contemplating and stressing over where in the entire world I would like to serve Jesus. Most Christians in the world don’t even think about that...they just learn to serve him right where they are. Maybe it’s time I learned the same thing. 

We use filters to make choices. Some choices we make based on what we can afford, or based on what is most healthy, or what is best for the people around us. Sometimes we just choose what we want. But ultimately, we all just want to make the best choice. 

That’s what I told the Lord when I was prayer walking and bringing it up again -  the same thing that has saturated my prayer life and conversations for nine months: What’s next? What does the future have in store? I need direction! I just want to make the best choice. 

Why are you so consumed with what is best? My heart thought it over. That’s a filter I am using to make my choices. What if God wants to change the way I see things? What if God gives me something very good, even if it’s not the best, and reserves the best for someone else? Who am I to complain? Have we become so obsessed with our choices and preferences that we have made idols out of them? 

Weigh the options, list the pros and cons, exhaust all your options, then make a logical decision. This is the way the world does discernment, but what if the Jesus way is different? What if Jesus wants to change the filter we are using to make our decisions?

I could picture the Lord standing with me at Discernment Diner, laughing at me as I wreck myself over trying to make a decision about my future. 

“Which one will I like best?” I ask him.

“You will like best the one that you choose.”

“But what if there is something better?”

“There won’t be when you learn to be content with what you have.”

“Yes, but I just want to make the best choice!”

“The best choice is to eat at the table with me, no matter which plate you choose.” 

I used to think that letting the Lord pick for me would please him. Now I am beginning to think that my picking is what will please him, for my choosing is a step and act of obedience. 

Maybe the big deal isn’t the actual choice and more what you do with the choice you make.

So I get my pho and sit down, realizing that it is Jesus’ presence across the table that makes me say, “This was the best choice.”