What Is Discernment?

In The Truman Show (1998), Jim Carrey plays Truman, a man who has—unbeknownst to him—lived his entire life as a reality TV star. Truman’s world is fabricated. Seahaven Island, his hometown, is actually a massive television set filled with hidden cameras and microphones. His friends, family, and neighbors are actors sustaining the fiction and ensuring Truman doesn’t look too closely at his reality. When asked why he believes Truman hasn’t discovered the true nature of his reality, Christof, the director of the reality show, responds, “We accept the reality of the world with which we’re presented. It’s as simple as that.” 

Is Discernment Different from Reality?

It seems safe to assume that we don’t exist in a reality show; however, we are often presented with realities that skew our perception of reality. We come to believe the world “works” in a particular way, making some actions seem inevitable— “givens” we would be foolish to ignore. Unfortunately, such presentations of reality are incomplete. In part, such incompleteness is a function of our finite natures. We will always have more to learn—and that isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Yet, that incompleteness also arises from our rejection of Christ’s authority. If we are trying to describe the world as if God is not present, as if he has not disclosed himself to us through His Son and His word, as if the Holy Spirit is not within and among us, we are sure to get the story wrong. 

What, you might ask, does all of this have to do with discernment? Discernment is a way of knowing what to do in light of reality, particularly the reality of the Triune God. If we return to Truman for a moment, we can see why reality is so crucial to discernment. For example, had Truman known that everyone else on Seahaven Island was an actor, wouldn’t that have changed the way he interacted with them? When he finds out that his life isn’t what he thought it was, he chooses to leave the show—he makes a different choice. Because we know that Christ has been given “all authority on heaven and on earth” (Matt 28:18), we commit to being and making disciples, pledging our allegiance to the Triune God in baptism and learning to follow the way of Christ.  

Discernment decoupled from reality doesn’t have to be “evil” in the sense that people turn into deviant thieves and murderers. However, discernment decoupled from the reality of God as revealed in his Son and his word will always be misdirected and require a podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or Life Audio.