Discerning the parts of the Whole

In our meeting's adult RE, we have been discussing discernment, what it is, how it works, what blocks us, and so on. We are relating it to discernment individually and for and in the meeting. It's a big topic!

Yesterday, following my AM blogging, and in that discussion at meeting, I came to see at another level how important the worship sharing that is being encouraged within the monthly meetings of Baltimore Yearly Meeting are.

We are a long way from a sense of how to proceed in our disagreement with the policies of Friends United Meeting. So of course, it makes sense to discuss this at the monthly meeting level, where deeper worship and sharing can take place.

What I realized yesterday, is how much support is needed for those who are truly feeling leadings, myself included, and how much discernment at a meeting and individual level is both desired and required.

Our elders are asking us to go within. They are providing us with a summary of information for the benefit of all of us having like knowledge, but the real calling is for worship and listening for God's leading.

I recognized in this session how much I rely on the guidance and forthrightness of those who know me best in my monthly meeting, to help me test my leadings, and to encourage me to bring them forth. I saw that this is also my own job, to listen intently to that of God in the person next to me.

Some of you may be saying, "of course," and I can even say that today, but yesterday morning it was truly an "aha" moment, a calling back to Spirit, a feeling at one with the whole.

We need each part of the body of Christ in order to be the Whole One.