6
Developing righteous character
Scientific realism keeps our feet on the ground, reduces the risk of religious fanaticism, and bolsters sanity, which the planet needs more of. Spiritual idealism, living faith, energizes the child of God in growing up to be like our divine Parent. High ideals add meaning and purpose to life. Without them, we muddle through, day by day, living largely on the level of biological needs, urges, struggles, and satisfactions. There is a dim sense that we are missing something. In this chapter we integrate spiritual growth with progress in the rest of life for holistic personal growth.
In first-century Judaism, a strong, balanced character, centered in God could be described in one word: righteous. Righteousness was an umbrella virtue, including the other qualities of a good character. When Jesus was criticized for eating and drinking with sinners, he replied with a statement of his life purpose. “I have come not to call the righteous but sinners” (Mark 2:17; Luke 5:32). When Jesus referred to the righteous, he did not imply that these persons had never sinned in the sense of intentionally going against the will of God. But he did imply that they were neither lost souls nor rebels against God in grave spiritual danger.
I interpret Jesus’ distinction between sinners and the righteous in a way that appeals to common sense and is also helpful in thinking about our ethical responsibilities. The righteous were sincere persons of faith who did a humanly decent job of following the commandments and living responsible lives in their communities. This involved personal moral standards and responsible habits in the different spheres of life. These included trustworthy conduct in marriage and family life; honest dealing in commerce and restraint in the pursuit of wealth; consideration by political leaders of justice for all the people, not just the elites; and contributing in various ways to the religious community.
This idea of righteousness is not a humanly unreachable ideal of heavenly perfection, nor an extreme, fanatical legalism, but a quality of character that an ordinary person could acquire in this life.
Jesus’ approach to stimulating the growth of righteous character was centered on transforming the inner life. He taught, “Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness.” Here again, I highlight another beatitude which I regard as autobiographical. “Happy are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled” (Matthew 6:33 and 5:6).
This chapter develops a concept of righteousness with four components. The first two portray how the human Jesus might have come to realize the happiness of this beatitude as a child. The last two focus on a teaching of Jesus that builds on this this beatitude: “Be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Matthew 5:48). Although we can only attain this heavenly ideal after this life, the last component shows how to integrate the ideal with what we can all achieve in this life on earth. I also propose two levels of legitimate commitment for Jesus’ followers and finally share a student’s experience report which illustrates some of the chapter’s themes.
Aspects of the growth of a righteous character
1. Growing into the hunger and thirst for righteousness
I imagine that in early childhood Jesus sensed righteous in his parents and in some of his neighbors. He naturally developed his God-given, human capacity for moral intuition of the difference between right and wrong. This intuition would have been shaped by his social environment, including some passages from the Hebrew Bible.
In a family of love and laughter, play and wisdom, Jesus would have grown up in a well-ordered home. I cannot imagine his father Joseph imposing a rough patriarchy, laying down the law for everyone else. Wise discipline would have prevailed, including the just and fair resolution of disagreements. Something like this arrangement would have helped Jesus feel secure growing up.
As Jesus came to know God, he would have increasingly experienced his Father’s love. Naturally, he responded with love for God that grew to encompass all his heart, soul, mind, and strength. This total love for God would have motivated a wholehearted desire to do God’s will. And this level of desire I regard as the heart of righteousness. Wholehearted devotion to the will of God is equivalent to hunger and thirst for righteousness.
As these developments were going on in the inner life of Jesus, he would have realized that God is the perfection of righteousness. Then, I imagine, one day, reflecting on his experience of growth, Jesus would have realized that he was becoming more like God. This would have made him very happy.
2. Realizing righteousness as a gift
In the second stage I imagine the young Jesus putting forth effort to become like God and discovering that his great desire was increasingly being fulfilled by God.
It is easy to imagine that, beginning sometime during his years in the local synagogue, Jesus cherished these words from second Isaiah: “My soul shall rejoice in the love of my God, for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation and has covered me with the robe of his righteousness” (Isaiah 61:10). The prophet implies that righteousness is not acquired mainly by dutiful determination and grit. It is, above all, a gift. As the young Jesus pursued the ideals of the character of God, it is possible that he could have put forth effort and discovered that “God gives the growth.” Jesus was beginning the happy process of being filled with righteousness by his heavenly Father.
Jesus brought the present and the future into dynamic relationship when he taught, “Happy are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled” (Matthew 5:6). He implied a connection between present happiness and the heavenly righteousness of our destiny. Although the complete fulfillment of the promise is beyond this life, there is no hurry. When faith and trust prevail, anxiety about being good enough is dissolved. Our long-term future is not in doubt. God-knowing persons have radiant assurance. In the matter of personal growth and other achievements, God gives the growth (1 Corinthians 3:7).
3. Taking up the quest for divine perfection
The hunger and thirst for righteousness unfolds into yearning to become and be like God. Jesus implied a magnificent destiny for us when he said, “Be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Matthew 5:48). This command implies a promise. In partnership with God, we can achieve perfection.
To be perfect like God, who is spirit, is a perfection beyond anything we can attain in this life. This quest is completely fulfilled only in heaven. On earth, we begin striving for the goal, and we can keep moving forward with God every day for as long as we live.
Today many people reject the very idea of perfection as a goal. They rightly reject unrealistic expectations that induce shame and guilt. Compulsive perfectionism about non-essentials can be part of the dynamic that generate self-righteous anger and contempt toward self and others.
By contrast, for Jesus, I believe, God’s perfect righteousness was based upon God’s love and mercy—two of the most important qualities of God that we can live in a human way. What perfection meant for Jesus is expressed more fully in Greek: the word for perfect, telios, also implies maturity and wholeness.
Jesus did not simply say, “Strive to become perfect.” I believe that his imperative “be perfect,” has implications for this life. If so, then there must be some kind of perfection, virtue, or mature wholeness that we can attain on in this life on earth.
4. Integrating heavenly and earthly ideals with what is possible in this life
The human Jesus learned to live the will of God on earth as in heaven. We can, too. As we grow up to be like our Parent, we make decisions to do God’s will of love by doing good to others. Ideally, this requires good knowledge of others and their situations, plus an awareness of the spiritual values that the situation (the will of God) calls for. But our practical goal is to be the best we can be day by day.
Jesus was continually expanding his knowledge of other people and the ever-changing circumstances of his time and place. And he attained an extraordinary awareness of divine values. His wisdom could often quickly connect his knowledge of relevant facts with the spiritual values that God wanted to actualize. Consider an example.
A person is driving on a highway and sees two cars on the side of the road that have evidently been involved in an accident. The driver sees the fact, intuits the cause, and spontaneously pulls over to help. The decision and action respond to the possible needs of those involved for values including mechanical, medical, psychological, and spiritual. Drivers are not expected to have the scientific knowledge of a medic. But they might carry a small pack of first aid supplies in the car. Or carry or keep in the car a list of useful phone numbers. Or simply be a friend to someone who is shaken and in need of reassurance.
As we pick up tips and learn from experience and study about the material and spiritual dimensions of life, we automatically make adjustments, usually small, in our perspective, decisions, and actions. We combine scientific realism and spiritual idealism unconsciously.
The integrated virtue of righteous character has no definable threshold of how much scientific knowledge, spiritual realization, and philosophical wisdom are required. There are no flags waving at the finish line. But a certain habit of living begins to settle in. In every arena of our lives (home, school, work, and more), we make and carry out decisions that increasingly unite spiritual values with scientific facts. As long as our hunger and thirst for righteousness are alive, we will be blessed with ongoing growth.
It is clear that we need to use our intelligence in order to do the will of God. To mention this is controversial, since some people have more of it than others. But we can gain liberation from seeing ourselves in ways that demean the abilities that we truly have. And mercifully, the spirit of God within each person is a cosmic genius.
A student’s living faith in God’s gift of righteousness
In my courses centered on experiential projects (see Appendix) I once assigned a project on righteousness in a world religions class. One student’s experience report begins with an untitled poem describing an earlier struggle, which introduces the following selections from her paper.
I was breaking down—shedding strength,
. . .
Caught inside of questions pulling from different directions,
When the answer came in unexpected form:
And it softly whispered: “Rest.”
. . . this single word was resonating with unmatched authority . . . .
So I said, “Yes. My soul welcomes this voice.”
Thus it continued:
“Rest. This is not your time for searching.
You are wounded, and your efforts are delaying the cure.
. . .
You are longing for answers, but needing so much more.
Rest—and receive precious blessings from others;
And through this you shall soon regain strength.
Rest, tiny child,
In the promise of my presence;
And for this shall you learn to give thanks.
She confirmed having “fully and willingly received the right answer: ‘find rest in the shadow of the Almighty,’ for he is my God, and I trust in him’ (Psalm 91:1-2).
“I will no longer strain myself to accomplish what God will do in His own perfect timing. For this project, this means I will no longer strive for righteousness. I will not push the limits of my own abilities in an attempt to achieve a sense of morality equal to God’s precise standard. Instead, I will observe the righteousness of my Lord. I will receive it from Him. I will soak it up. I will bask in its restorative power.
“The righteousness assignment’s description invites us to begin ‘a fresh dimension of living.’ My life thus far has consisted of walking in circles—repeatedly crossing the same ground—making very little progress. But God promptly showed me a yet unvisited path which He wants my feet to follow, and it seems easy to say: “Yes, I will go.” The beautiful objective is simply this: to seek the face of God.
“One might ask what it means to seek the face of God; and I’ll admit I asked myself the same thing. How does one go about it? But if I choose to indulge this question, I would only be undermining my newest ambition to surrender all toilsome effort and labor to God. Not only this, but think what precious moments of potential experience might be lost because of an obsession over definition or method! That being said, my only answer for the person who must know what it means to seek the face of God is this: Let Him show you.
. . .
“I felt God’s face looking at me, and it felt warm. It felt like home. It felt like comfort.”
Then, feeling guided to read Psalm 119, she found a new way of putting forth effort to work to attain ideals. “Without God’s righteous authority, the world would be utter chaos. . . . How pleased the Father would be if we all understood the incredibly precious worth of his rules.” Previously, she had thought that freedom meant “no dictates, no rules, no chains.” Now she realized how the ways of obedience add up to “the greatest freedom: the experience of pure contentment.”[i]
With wholehearted receptive and active faith, the author discovered her balance of patient trust and idealistic effort.
Summary and transition
Nourished by high ideals, Jesus developed a righteous character. As I interpret it, when Jesus referred to “the righteous,” he had in mind persons who are trustworthy in the various spheres of life: family, work, the political realm, and the religious community. To help his hearers grow in righteousness, Jesus’ approach was to promote transformation of the inner life. A beatitude full of meaning to guide this process was, “Happy are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled” (Matthew 5:6).
To envision the growth of a righteous character in Jesus and ourselves, I propose four components. First, receptive and active faith leads us to discover the goodness, love, and righteousness of God. Sincere beginnings grow into wholehearted cooperation with God, which leads to important achievements. The key to human righteousness is the supreme desire to do the will of God. This desire is equivalent to the hunger and thirst for righteousness.
Second, as our righteous character develops, we discover that God is gradually making us like Godself. Each step of growth in our righteous character is a gift from God. Realizing this in our personal experience leads to happiness and rejoicing.
Third, an urge that was present in stage one develops into the realization that we are in partnership with God on a wonderful quest for perfection.
Fourth, we develop the kind of perfection that we can attain in this life—the virtue of mature righteousness. We develop the habit of making wise decisions for the will of God by combining our increasing knowledge of situations with our growing awareness of spiritual values. As we continue to gain knowledge and spiritual insight, we often make appropriate adjustments in our lives unconsciously.
Finally, the student’s experience report wrote about learning to balance exerting effort to obey divine commands and trusting God to give us righteousness on God’s schedule.
When we speak of the will of God, the question arises of how we can find it, and this is the topic of the next chapter.
Questions and invitations
- What quality in God would you most like to acquire in the way possible for humans?
- How is this value or virtue relevant to situations that arise for you?
- What knowledge do you have that can help you make intelligent and wise decisions to put into practice toward your goal starting now?
- Would it help you to take five minutes now to jot how you could weave scientific realism together with spiritual idealism?
7
Finding God’s will
The version that I learned of an old gospel hymn has these verses.
“A blind man stood on the way and he cried (repeat); crying O, O, show me the way, a blind man, stood on the way and he cried.
“A preacher man stood on the way and he cried (repeat); crying O, O, show me the way, preacher man, stood on the way and he cried.
“Now I’m standin’ on the way and I’m cryin’; (repeat) Crying O, O, show me the way, I’m standin’, standin’ on the way, and I’m crying.”
Everyone has times when their soul is crying out something like this. When we are truly lost, we do well to express it sincerely and freely. The author of the Book of Hebrews writes, “In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to the one who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission” (Hebrews 5:7). In the hour of Jesus’ agony in Gethsemane, when he needed assurance that the cross was indeed his Father’s will, he was strengthened for the ordeal by an angel (Luke 3:9-46).
Jesus had doing God’s will on his short list of essentials in the life of faith. He said, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.” Doing God’s will makes us part of Jesus’ new family. “Who are my mother and brothers? . . . Whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother” (Matthew 7:21 and 12:48-50). Being members in Jesus’ family only strengthens our desire to know God’s will.
If doing the will of God is so important, we can be assured from the start that God has a path that enables us to find his will. It must be a path so vast and universal that all persons of faith can find it, a path that contains within itself every other worthy path. It must be a beautiful path of divine truth and goodness.
Sometimes we immediately and intuitively know the will of God; sometimes it takes searching before we get our intuition. Finding the will of God often involves a process in which we seek, find, discern, then decide and do God’s will. This chapter reflects on Jesus’ praying and on a parable. Then we clarify the problem of discernment, add a bit of philosophy, and then solve the problem with three qualities of God that are values we all can live. Finally we bring all these phases of the process together in a concept of living the will of God.
When Jesus prayed
Often the human Jesus did not need prayer in order to know the Father’s will. As proposed in the previous chapter, fully mature righteous character—the kind of perfection that we can achieve in this life—integrates heavenly values with earthly realities. Jesus’ intuitive insight into his Father’s will was based upon his excellent knowledge of people and situations plus knowing God intimately, which included awareness of the relevant divine value(s) to be actualized. For example, in the domain of truth, how much content communicated is enough? In the arena of beauty, would a parable or a direct teaching be more fitting? In the realm of goodness, does a situation call for patient waiting or courageous action?
But sometimes Jesus’ wisdom was not enough to come promptly to an intuitive grasp of what to do. Then he would often have taken his longings and problems directly to God in prayer. I imagine an adolescent Jesus praying, opening himself in profound receptivity, allowing God to add to, and revise, his human wisdom.
A full prayer life includes quick prayers and long ones. Jesus probably prayed briefly and silently when no one else was aware of it. But from time to time, he would withdraw to a lonely place and pray. Sometimes he spent all night in prayer. He seems to have truly enjoyed communing with his Father for hours at a time. It is only logical that prayer to know God’s will was part of Jesus’ agenda in communing with his Father. After all, Jesus was energized by doing his Father’s will. “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to complete his work” (Luke 5:16 and 6:12; John 4:34).
Prayer is different from seeking counsel from a human friend. Instead of a face-to-face conversation, it is a human mind and soul interacting with the spirit of God. Some people disregard the communication gap between humankind and God. They send forth lots of quick prayers and often assume that the next impressive input that enters their mind comes from God. Others are overwhelmed by the gap. They may be so anxious to be certain about God’s answer that they agonize needlessly. Jesus showed a better way.
The prayer that Jesus taught to the twelve apostles gives us the opportunity to enter into the prayer with Jesus in spirit and in truth (Matthew 6:9-13). The prayer does much to orient us to God’s will. We start by praying in the plural (“our Father”), which reminds us of our primary identity: children of God. Next, we are alerted to the fact that in prayer, we are on holy (“hallowed”) ground.
Next: “Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven” (Matthew 6:10 ESV). Entering into Jesus’ prayer here implies that we are committing to accept and welcome whatever God does and whatever God does not do according to his all-wise will. In the same breath, the prayer calls us to do our part by doing God’s will ourselves. The will of God is closely identified with the kingdom of heaven (“your kingdom come”). Not only does this concept imply eternal life for the family of those with faith in God and a wonderful destiny for our planet. We are also to do what we can here and now so that the will of God is increasingly done on earth as it is in heaven.
Then come requests for bread (material and spiritual), forgiveness, and help in dealing with evil. These petitions express a range of essential needs and suggest what we may be able to do to make God’s love real for others. Here’s the whole prayer.
Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.” (Matthew 6:9-13 ESV)
Jesus also experienced other modes of prayer, for example, chanting scriptures and other prayers that were a part of Jewish life.
Persistent prayer
One of Jesus’ parables may hint at the need for a more thorough prayer process.
Suppose one of you has a friend, and you go to him at midnight and say to him, “Friend, lend me three loaves of bread, for a friend of mine has arrived, and I have nothing to set before him.” And he answers from within, “Do not bother me; the door has already been locked, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot get up and give you anything.” I tell you, even though he will not get up and give him anything out of friendship, at least because of his persistence he will get up and give him whatever he needs. (Luke 11:5-8)
Persistence in prayer involves some combination of short and longer prayers. The one who comes knocking represents persistence; but persistence in prayer does not mean repeating the same demand over and over in an effort to get God—our friend!—to do what we want. Some people pray in order to change God’s mind. But Jesus knew what the prophets knew about God. As Malachi said, speaking in the spirit, “I, the Lord, do not change” (Malachi 3:6; 1 Samuel 15:29).
When we sense that our prayer is not getting through, this may be our cue to try a new approach. Sometimes there is a need to find the prayer. In other words, we need to come closer to asking for what God knows we need, can realistically ask for, and use now.
The friend who did not want to get out of bed and help may have been stubborn. But we who have embraced the quest to become like our heavenly Parent can choose not to be stubborn about wanting the Creator to do what we want.
The friend who refuses to get out of bed may be said to be lazy. But we can choose to be diligent and do our homework before we pray—gaining understanding about the situation, the persons involved, and the relevant divine values. We also pray responsibly by not asking God to clean up our messes when we need to be held accountable by having to deal with the consequences ourselves (for example, ecological, social, economic, and political consequences). God does these responsible activities with us, not for us.
Before leaving the parable, let us savor the values of the friend who comes knocking. His request is unselfish; he is motivated by friendship and hospitality.
From the problem of discernment to a solution
The problem
When we pray and expect an answer, things happen that some people interpret as divine hints, winks, or nudges. Aha moments come, serendipities, and spiritual experiences. Sometimes things happen which we interpret as acts of God, but they could equally be coincidences that were foreseen but not arranged by God. And sometimes, impressive inputs come from the subconscious mind.
An impressive response to prayer from the subconscious mind is more likely in quick prayers, but also possible in thorough praying. A quick prayer tends to be a prayer of the mind only, and not also a prayer of the soul. It may lack depth. But a quick prayer can also express such receptive, spiritual sincerity that it promptly recognizes God’s answer.
Once we start working on a problem in the conscious mind, the unconscious mind may well go to work at the same time. It can draw on memories of quotes from scripture, and other knowledge and experience of which we are not presently conscious. The mind may speak to us in the second person and give commands. An input generated by the human mind is not as wise as an answer from God, but it is often a significant improvement on what we had been consciously thinking previously.
The problem of discerning God’s will is widely recognized. We hear the question, “How can we know God’s will for sure?” The question has no simple answer. It can be asked in one way by a skeptic, in another way by an anxious believer, and in a third way by a trusting seeker. The skeptic doubts the possibility of knowing and uses this as an excuse not to seek. The anxious believer, faced by a difficult moral question, may be seeking intellectual certainty that God may not provide. For a trusting seeker like the human Jesus, prayer becomes an adventure of learning to cooperate with God. This adventure seeks pursues the quality of certainty that satisfies the soul.
If we are uncertain and anxious, we can doubt our experience forever and raise endless questions about our efforts at discernment. This can paralyze decision-making, lead to skepticism, and cause us to lose our sense of humor. However, recognizing human limitations does not force us to be uncertain in our faith. If we persist, living faith finds divine assurance of progress on our journey in God.
Some resources for discernment are: scripture, which must be translated, interpreted, and applied to the situation at hand; tradition, which is mixed; the judgment of the religious community or friends in faith, who can make mistakes; reason, which can be misused; and the test of time, which is not perfect either. The ideal of fully consulting all of them is impossibly high, and not even in combination are they guaranteed to give us the divine answer. But they are worth taking seriously, because they afford a variety of perspectives and relax the tendency to overestimate our own judgment.
If there were a set of absolute criteria for determining the will of God, standards which the human intellect could apply without fail, there would be no adventure, no transformation, no soul growth, no stretching ourselves to live in a more heavenly way, and no fun.
When we struggle to find the will of God, it helps to recall that we already know a lot about it. For example, we can bring to mind the universal commands to love, to be merciful, to treat others as we want others to treat us, and to become perfect (to be our best as we are able one day at a time).
And now the path to the solution to the problem of discernment leads through philosophy.
Philosophy’s wisdom
Philosophy has an important role to play in sharpening our discernment. The word “philosopher” means “a friend of wisdom.” The ideal is to live in the light of the wisdom we already have, to recognize when we need more, and then to seek for what we need until we find it. Philosophy can contribute to the larger process of seeking for God’s will, because seeking, finding, and discerning wisdom and living wisely are also part of God’s will.
In the Greco-Roman culture that would have stimulated Jesus’ philosophical thinking, many thinkers sought to develop a philosophy in a more comprehensive way. Some of them aspired to achieve an integrated understanding of reality and human experience. And the goal was to create a universal synthesis that would culminate in a philosophy of living.
In the ancient world and since, philosophical striving helped thinkers develop a variety of specific skills. At its best, philosophy replaces confusion by clarity, sharpens our capacities for intuition and insight, interprets meanings wisely, reasons logically, synthesizes concepts coherently, and knows when to be quiet because it would be unwise to say more.
In an informal and largely unconscious way, we each construct a philosophy of living as we grow up. We gather items for our wisdom basket from a wide variety of sources, including family, school, friends, and scientific, philosophical, and religious interpretations of reality. Wisdom also represents our harvest from seasoned experience, including lessons learned the hard way. This philosophy functions to organize the mind’s grasp of meanings and values having to do, for example, with concepts of God, what it means to be a human being, and what kind of place the universe is (hostile, indifferent, or friendly). Our major concepts can be organized according to priorities that are centered in God and wisely balanced.
When we are unaware that we are functioning in a roughly philosophical way, we do not see how important this activity is, and we are much less likely to seek out more education in this area. I regard modern civilization as seriously unbalanced, prizing science and material progress first, spirituality and holistic growth considerably less, and wisdom a distant third.
Some philosophers have noted that throughout the history of philosophy, we can find versions of three basic attitudes: dogmatism, skepticism, and adventuresome thinking. Dogmatism at its best is loyal to important principles, but it rejects balancing truths. Skepticism at its best sees important errors and criticizes incisively, but it does not know when to stop being negative. Adventuresome thinking is both oriented by basic truths and open to learning from criticism.
Science, philosophy, and spirituality seek the kinds of truths that pertain to their own realm of matter, mind, or spirit. But all truth is God’s truth, and philosophy finds meaning in all three domains. Truth has a living, spiritual center, a scientific periphery, and a philosophical bridge between the two.
It takes work to harmonize science and religion. For example, psychologist Sigmund Freud used his brilliant mind to criticize the concept of love for the neighbor. Consider a few of his criticisms, for example, about not becoming emotionally involved with everyone you meet, not trusting people blindly, and having psychologically healthy ways of dealing with your own aggression. We could foolishly say to ourselves that science has shown neighbor love to be a bad idea. Or we could transform these criticisms into warnings to make our love more intelligent and wise.
The following discussion of truth, beauty, and goodness is another example of philosophical interpretation. We cannot tell how much Jesus participated in the philosophy of his day; he probably did not organize his discernment as I do. Nevertheless, with a smile, I cannot help thinking that must he have agreed with some ideas that I regard as insightful.
Truth, beauty, and goodness in God’s answer to prayer
Truth, beauty, and goodness are qualities of God and values that we can live. I regard them as divine values because we find them on all levels. In God, in the mind, and in the material world, we can discover truth, find and create beauty, and participate in doing what is good. These universal values enable the Creator Parent and the creature child to share a common language.
I see truth, beauty, and goodness as a ladder that God puts down from heaven to earth so that there is something we can understand that enables us to climb higher. These values speak to our thinking, feeling, and doing. If a seeming answer to prayer feels good, but is intellectually problematic, or appeals intellectually but doesn’t feel right, or can’t be put into practice, then we can wrestle with it more or simply reject it.
God is the source of these three values; and “God is love” (1 John 4:8). I regard these values as forming a path to love and as being essential ingredients in love. The highest truths are truths of love; and love is the most fulfilling beauty and the greatest good.
Truth, beauty, and goodness prepare us for all manner of situations in which we must decide and do. God does not call on the phone or materialize a print-out or a roadmap. But faith receives guidance that is sufficient to clarify our choice. Then the decision launches the doing—the course of action.
As God responds to our prayer, the Creator does not put the three values on a plate like a pineapple, a banana, and a mango. Instead, God gives a blend, a smoothie, that we can find delicious without having to ask about these three values.
I find that a response to prayer that blends truth, beauty, and goodness can include:
- clear intuition or insight into the truth of the situation being prayed about
- moral insight into the goodness of the course of action that opens up
- an intuitive feeling, peaceful or rejoicing, in response to the beauty of seeing these values come together
In such insights and intuitions, we discern God’s values.
Amazingly, these same qualities of clarity (truth), moral satisfaction (goodness), and peace (beauty) can come after quick prayers.
Why then should we take time to explore truth, beauty, and goodness? For the same reason that Jesus prayed to the Father at length. It might seem that he could have contented himself with quick prayers. But longer periods of time in prayer cultivate the mind in such a way that our quick prayers are more likely to come closer to what God wants us to find. Otherwise, quick prayers might seem a little bit like a game.
In the game of darts, players take turns trying to throw their darts so that they stick in the center of the dartboard. But most of the time they hit the dartboard somewhere else; sometimes they miss the dartboard altogether. If I were going to create a dartboard, the center would symbolize doing God’s will, and the surrounding circles would represent human approximations to that goal that are less divine.
Here is the solution that I propose to the problem of discerning the will of God. Because divine values are woven together in religious experience, we ideally need to reflect in order to distinguish them in a response to prayer. Our thinking finds truth in it; our feeling finds beauty in it; and we find goodness in its guidance for our decision. When we have been wholehearted in our prayer process (even a quick one when that’s what we have time for), we may rest content with the best that we have been realistically able to find.
In loving mercy, God works with us to help make the best of our decision. The Parent accepts and adopts the child’s best effort. We can relax and rejoice. Discernment doesn’t have to hit the bullseye; it just has to hit the target.
Discernment does not mean intuiting the source of an impressive input. It means intuiting truth, beauty, and goodness.
It is our choice to explore this frontier. The more we try it out, the more interesting it becomes.
Living the will of God
After we discern God’s will, what comes next is to actualize it, to make it real, by deciding and doing.
To live the will of God is a continuous process. It is like living faith, which encompasses both receptive and active faith. Living the will of God involves
- mobilizing our supreme desire for God’s will
- the whole process of seeking, finding, discerning, and choosing God’s will
- the growing maturity of how we respond to the struggles with their failures and victories—whether we are doing God’s will consciously or unconsciously
Note that, after we have found God’s will, it may be better to live it unconsciously. For example, think of living the golden rule, treating others as we want to be treated. Self-conscious rule-following is inadequate; loving spontaneity is best.
Sometimes I think of God’s will in terms of that, what, and how: God’s will is that we wholeheartedly desire to do it, to discern what he wills, and then to find how to do it in a loving and merciful way. Being wholehearted about God’s will makes the what and the how much easier.
Seeking God’s will is not chasing after an impossible ideal; the Creator does not expect a level of discernment beyond what the child can realistically achieve. But God does want us to seek diligently.
Living God’s will may seem impossible, unless we see it as a process of gradual growth, and until we recall that divine fellowship, abundant mercy, and generous patience are with us every step of the way. Yes, at times we need to cry out, “Show me the way.” But reasonable expectations empower us to leave anxiety at the door and enter into contentment. Honoring a wise rhythm of effort and relaxation enables us to enjoy the journey of the ongoing cycles of asking, seeking, finding, discerning, choosing and doing God’s will. Each cycle strengthens our motivation to do it again and again until we are living God’s will continuously.
Summary and transition
This chapter has unfolded an adventuresome path of seeking, finding, discerning, choosing, doing, and living the will of God. There was some speculation on Jesus’ practice of quick prayer and evidence of his persistent prayer. We considered a parable that may suggest a more thorough prayer process. Next, after we seem to have received a response to our prayer, a question may arise about whether the input comes from God or from the human mind. Facing the problem of discernment, we looked briefly at some resources, and at philosophy in particular.
I then developed the proposal that a divine answer to prayer brings truth for thinking to understand, beauty for the heart to feel, and goodness to govern our doing. All these values are woven together, so we may need to reflect on our experience to detect them. But having been wholehearted and persistent in our prayer process, if we are to avoid skepticism (giving up on the effort of discernment), we have every right to go forward trusting that the will of God our friend is to adopt and work with the best we can find. If we have not hit the bullseye, we have indeed hit the realistic target, which is all that our Parent asks of us.
After these introductory chapters with all their serious mental and spiritual effort, it is important to consider another kind of balance in Jesus’ life—joy. We will find the beauty of his joy as we explore the wider theme of abundant living.
Questions and invitations
- When you want divine guidance, how much do you rely on quick prayers?
- What sources of wisdom do you rely on most?
- When you pray longer, what do you do? After reading this chapter, is there anything that you would like to add to what you do?
- Jot down some notes that describe an experience of answered prayer. In your description, include what truth, beauty, and goodness you find to be present in that answer.
[i] I quote this student by permission, and honor her choice that I not reveal her name.
Geoff Taylor
Wow!