UFF DA = Exclamation Used (today at least) to Express The Practice of Confrontational Discernment!



Thanks Mirm for your "You Mean Boundaries Don't Contradict Grace?" post. This started as a comment in response to your post but quickly spun into a blog entry.

In your post you pray that God would give us "discernment to create and enforce boundaries."  The way you capture and express discernment resonated with some of the expositions from Bailey that stuck out to me in the reading.  

In thinking of discernment these words from Bailey stuck out...

"Some in the congregation are at least contemplating plating (and perhaps urging) leaving this mess for Paul to sort out when he arrives. That way the congregation can avoid the painful and distasteful task of making a decision. Furthermore, whatever Paul decides, they can then blame him. "He said this," "He failed to do that," "If only he had ..." The discussion can last for months and the damage for years."

He then writes...

"Paul is too intelligent to be caught is such a bind. In short he says, You have to make a decision and carry it out. Don't wait for me. You must take responsibility for this problem."

This tension between Paul and the church reminds me of the "discernment" tension we feel on the water.  Our discipleship approach, like Paul, is to encourage each other when being eyes and ears on the water to not avoid "distasteful decisions" by waiting for someone else but instead to "take responsibility for this problem."

I know during my  Barney, Driver, and Admin summers I grew to understand that discernment is not merely an abstract idea but the choice to become actively and (to some extent) confrontationally involved in refining behaviors/actions to protect the sacred welfare and health of the campers. 
One obvious example – not merely calling Reid to report sketchy ski boat behavior but instead immediately approaching the driver and via confrontational discernment teaching the driver the correct behavior/actions. 

I can hear Bailey’s words echoing off the water as I write this….. “You have to make a decision and carry it out.  Don’t wait for me. You must take responsibility for this problem!”

Thanks for helping me internalize and express this idea of confrontational discernment and how it fits with our discipleship approach Mirm!

I have no idea what UFF DA means but, for me, as I read your post and thought of some ideas that struck me from the reading, I defined UFF DA as "Mirm's exclamation used (today at least for me) to express the practice of confrontational discernment particularly in Sonshine's discipleship approach to Sonshine's leaders on the water."

Thanks for your wisdom Mirm!

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