I’ve talked recently with several people facing big decisions: what kind of work to pursue after graduation, for example, or whether to keep living where they are now or move back home to be closer to family. When I’ve found myself facing big decisions like this, I confess that sometimes I wish the Lord would just give me a clear and decisive answer. But that’s not the way He works. Divine Providence 321 explains why the Lord doesn’t give this kind of answer via direct influx:
Those who await influx receive none, except the few who from their heart desire it; and they occasionally receive some response by a vivid perception, or by tacit speech in the response, in their thought but rarely by any manifest speech. It is then to this effect that they should think and act as they wish and as they can, and that he who acts wisely is wise and he who acts foolishly is foolish. They are never instructed what to believe and what to do, and this in order that the human rational principle and human freedom may not perish; that is, that everyone may act from freedom according to reason, to all appearance as from himself.
This teaching can be both frustrating and comforting – frustrating because it means I still have to do the work of making the decision; but comforting because it reminds me that the freedom to think through things and make a choice is a precious gift, something I can even enjoy if I’m able to find peace about the fact that none of my decisions will be perfect.
And this doesn’t mean the Lord leaves us without guidance. We can keep the Lord’s goal at the forefront in our decision-making - that He might work through us to love others. And the good news here is that no matter what decisions we make, if we’re shunning evils and looking to Him, He will use our decisions to do good. And the more we practice, the more insight He gives us. Here is Apocalypse Explained 979, one of my favorite passages:
When someone shuns evils as sins they daily learn what a good work is, and the affection of doing good grows with them, and the affection of knowing truths for the sake of good; for so far as they know truths they can perform works more fully and more wisely, and thus their works become more truly good. Cease, therefore, from asking in yourself, ‘What are the good works that I must do, or what good must I do to receive eternal life?’ Only cease from evils as sins and look to the Lord, and the Lord will teach and lead you.