Really Real - Discernment Part 2

Is there a downside to discernment?

In a previous discussion of discernment, I defined discernment as the God-given ability to see what’s really real.


We need discernment because as leaders, we must be willing to be radicals who can see beyond the presenting symptoms and get to the root problem. That’s the original meaning of radical and why I have always embraced that as a worthy label.

But as I think about – and in fact experience God-given discernment – I have discovered there’s a potential downside to discernment that we must guard against. Sometimes, when God pulls back the curtain and allows us to see what’s “really real,” we are tempted to become cynical.

Oh, but we’re really sly about our cynicism. We tell ourselves (and others) that we’re not being cynical, we’re just being realistic! If we’re not careful, this becomes part of a bigger pattern that can derail our credibility and effectiveness as leaders.

In their book, Leadership on the Line, Heifetz and Linsky discuss this as a result of leaders buying into the myth of needing to develop a thick skin.



Certainly we need to be resilient, but if we’re not careful developing a thick skin can “squeeze the juice out of our soul. We lose our capacity for innocence, curiosity, and compassion. In a sense, our hearts close -- our innocence turns into cynicism, our curiosity turns into arrogance, and our compassion turns into callousness. We dress these up, of course, because we don't want to see ourselves -- and certainly don't want others to see us -- as cynical, arrogant and callous. We dress cynicism up as realism. So now we are not cynical; we're realistic. We are not arrogant, but we do have authoritative knowledge. And we dress up and cloak our callousness by calling it the thick skin of wisdom.”

In order to counter this all too human tendency, I always combine my prayer for discernment with a prayer for wisdom. I need God-given discernment to see what’s really real; but I also need God-given wisdom to know how to deal with what He has shown me.



And this requires humility to submit myself to Him and to not strive to use my limited perspective and limited understanding to solve the issues that I am confronted with.

“But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all generously and without reproach, and it will be given to him.” James 1:5