Photo from the Office of Vocations: Pikes Peak Discernment Retreat
I’m using only personal and anecdotal evidence here, but I daresay that vocational discernment is difficult for many people not because they don’t trust God, but because they don’t have a clear sense of what God wants for them to do. Their interior experience and prayer then goes something like this: “God, I’ll do whatever you want me to do – but you have to tell me what that is!” And of course, that begins the real work of discernment: to identify God’s call in the context of one’s life, to separate the signal from the noise, to recognize the will of God in the way that God communicates it to us.
Still, the ambiguity and uncertainty that comes with any major discernment can seem like a “design flaw.” If God wants us to do His will, then why doesn’t He make it obvious for us? If it’s so important to answer God’s call, why doesn’t God make it clearer?
I think a big part of the answer is that God “optimizes” human life in such a way as maximizes our trust in Him. God wills that we trust Him and hope in Him, but as St. Paul says, “hope that sees for itself is not hope. For who hopes for what one sees?” And so not only clear signs and calls but also periods of uncertainty are the means that God’s providence uses to evoke in us the greatest possible faith in God.
In the Bible, the most impressive thing that a human being can do is trust in God – and the less certain a person is, the more impressive their trust. God does amazing things, but often there’s somehow a “prerequisite” for that action – someone has to trust God enough to cooperate with Him, and usually that trust looks reckless and foolish at the time. It’s easy to multiply examples of this: Abraham trusts God and goes out from his homeland, and again when he is willing to sacrifice Isaac; only then does God make Abraham the father of many nations. Moses trusts God enough to defy Pharaoh and demand the freedom of Israel; only then does God send the plagues and parts the Red Sea and lead Israel out from Egypt. Gideon trusts God enough to send nearly all of his army away before attacking the Midianites; only then does God rout the enemy for them. Job trusts God in the throes of his suffering; only then does God bless him far more than he was before his trials. Mary trusts God at the Annunciation, only then does God make her His mother. Greatest of all, Jesus trusts his Father on the cross, commending his spirit into his hands; only then does God raise him from the dead.
Biblical heroes you and I are not, but I daresay the most impressive thing that we can do as human beings is also to trust in God. For us, discerning a vocation is not (I hope!) so dramatic as these Biblical examples – but does demand that we really trust God! And the pattern in the Bible is so clear that we ought to have faith in it too: God vindicates and does amazing things for and through those who trust Him.
Fr. Steve Jakubowski, C.S.C.
Provided by the Vocations Office, January 14, 2026
