Our Lord encourages us to be salt and light to the world around us, even as we are buffeted by a cacophony of shrill voices fomenting fear, anger and uncertainty. Currently, engaging in public discourse concerning politics, religion and social policy is akin to swimming in a vat of acid. As Anglican pastor Dan Scott says, “The deeper challenge is that many of us no longer understand – nor care to understand – the way our neighbours think.”[1] How can we find a way forward? Our calling is to bloom where we are planted. Jesus compares spreading the good news to sowing seed into various types of soils. To manage our garden well, we need to understand the soil and learn the art of cultivating the field that God has given us. The ancient maxim ‘know thyself’ is a good start as we examine and prepare our hearts. Secondly, we learn the critical art of cultivating discernment practices to guide us in our journey. Thirdly, we adopt an appropriate mental and spiritual posture with the goal of being rightly related to the world around us. Finally, we move into meaningfully engaging our culture while avoiding distractions.
We begin by examining and preparing our own hearts. Jesus encourages us to look at the log in our own eye before going after the speck in another’s eye. A prerequisite to cultural engagement is increasing our self-awareness. What are our values and where do they spring from? What issues and events trigger strong emotional or intellectual reactions? Entrenched habits and practices blind us not only to our own foibles but also to seeing where God is at work. We recognize that all humans are subject to sin and that we, too, are complicit in the mess, so we approach our task with humility. James the Just writes, “What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you?”[2] Although the Enlightenment champions reason as supreme, for thousands of years accepted wisdom has also recognized the pervasive influence of passions. Psychologist Jonathan Haidt describes the conflict between reason and passion using the metaphor of a small rider on an elephant.[3] The rider is reason, and the elephant is our emotional, intuitive, and unconscious mind. The elephant is intelligent and can be cajoled by kindness and reason. However, once the elephant is stirred up, it tends to dictate how we interact with others. Once awoken, autonomic processes kick in, triggering negative emotions; walls go up; anger or defensiveness kicks in; and meaningful conversation ends. Can triggering events be an opportunity for growth? One of the keys to keeping our cool in conflict is recognizing what triggers strong reactions. When we overreact or have strong emotions, that should be an indicator that we need to step back and examine the cause. Some of our personal foibles and struggles will colour our interactions with the world around us, so it’s essential to recognize and deal with them. What we need is the grace to respond, not react.
Meaningful interaction with those around us requires us to cultivate practices of discernment leading to moral clarity, self-awareness, and attunement to where God is at work. This involves receiving God’s grace to shift from reacting to responding. We allow Scripture to interpret our lives and shape us, and choose what best leads to God’s deepening life in us.[4] Discernment is the practice of seeing things as they really are and acting accordingly. It takes several forms: discerning good from evil, making the best decisions, ascertaining God’s movement, and seeing the thoughts, intentions, and motivations of our own hearts. Overreacting or having strong emotions should be an indicator that discernment is needed. We have an exemplar in Ignatius of Loyola. As he grew in faith, he realized that God spoke and worked through events in his life. He practiced pausing to reflect during the day to find the hand of God in everyday experience. This evolved into the notion of finding God in all things, which is a major facet of Ignatian Spirituality.[5] Can we simultaneously develop greater self-awareness and discern God’s movements? Ignatius compared himself to a schoolboy needing to be taught by God. The use of a diary coupled with the Ignatian prayer of examen is a useful tool. Often, when reviewing a diary, we see repeated patterns that will be helpful in discernment. Michael Ivens SJ champions the prayer of Examen as a resource for the whole of life. Its practice helps keep us open to the action of the Spirit in our lives and facilitates the liberation from the things that hinder God’s work in our lives. Ignatius held the Examen in high esteem and was never willing to dispense with it; in his own life, the practice played a central role.[6] In common practice, there are five steps in the prayer: ask God for light, give thanks, review the day, face your shortcomings and look toward the day to come. It is recommended that one take 15 to 20 minutes per day to pray and record observations. A periodic review of the record will tend to reveal patterns of God’s movement. Jim Manney describes the prayer in detail,[7] and Loyola Press publishes a prayer card with the steps on their website.[8]
Thirdly, we need to adopt an appropriate mental and spiritual posture to be rightly related to the world around us. Jeremiah encouraged those in exile in Babylon to flourish where they were planted and to seek the welfare of the city where they were sent.[9] Eugene Peterson suggests that: “The assumption of spirituality is that always God is doing something before I know it. So the task is not to get God to do something I think needs to be done, but to become aware of what God is doing so that I can respond to it and participate and take delight in it.”[10] But how do we start? Ignatius encourages us to adopt an attitude of spiritual freedom or detachment from all created things.[11] This does not mean uncaring or callousness. It means having the inner freedom to hold all of life’s gifts, circumstances, and choices with open hands, without being controlled by them. This requires understanding and grappling with issues in a proper, balanced, and truthful way while maintaining healthy boundaries. We treat others fairly and with love and respect. Marina Berzins McCoy writes that “Ignatian indifference is the capacity to let go of what doesn’t help me to love God or love others—while staying engaged with what does.”[12] This doesn’t necessarily mean there won’t be conflict; we may need to push hard in some situations, but rather it implies a measured and thoughtful response free of acrimony.
Lastly, we commit ourselves to engaging the world around us in a meaningful way while avoiding distractions. In many parts of North America, the culture is arguably post-Christian and closer in attitude to the skepticism of Athens rather than to the more spiritual focus of Jerusalem. Perhaps we are best served if we adopt a missionary mindset. Dan Scott recently observed that effective ministry begins with learning and that successful missionaries learn the language, listen carefully and understand the customs while entering deeply into the lives of those they serve. He says that: “Love of neighbour requires more than speaking the truth. It requires listening. It requires entering the person’s world we are trying to serve with enough sympathy to understand why he believes what he believes. Understanding, please note, is not necessarily agreement.”[13] So how do we discern whether to engage with an issue and, if so, to what extent? Are we adequately prepared to do so? Can we be light in a given situation, or are we so triggered that we are useless? When we are open to the Holy Spirit, He acts in surprising ways. Stephen R. Covey may be helpful at this point. He categorizes the affairs of life into three nested spheres. The innermost contains those things that we directly control, such as habits, attitudes, and reactions, which he calls our circle of control. The second sphere holds circumstances that we can impact but not entirely control, such as relationships, health, and work performance; these constitute our circle of influence. Lastly, in the outermost sphere are things we care about but over which we have no control; he labels them our circle of concern.[14] An ever-present danger is to focus on the circle of concern. For example, social media is full of actors whose sole purpose is to rage-bait by intentionally misrepresenting others and spreading disinformation to hijack our attention. An apt description of social media interaction is the unattributed old folk expression: “I learned long ago, never to wrestle with a pig. You get dirty, and besides, the pig likes it.”
If Covey is correct, it should help us narrow our field of engagement. We can really only control our own actions, mindset and responses; however, we do have a circle of influence to build upon. This comes through cultivating relationships and opportunities to influence those around us, whether through friendship, social media, or involvement in social or political causes. Given that human nature encompasses passion and reason, how do we engage those around us? Perhaps impacting those around us involves talking to their elephants. To rephrase Dale Carnegie, one of the greatest elephant-whisperers of all time: The persuader’s goal should be to convey respect, warmth, and an openness to dialogue before stating one’s own case.
We are called to love, understand, pray for and serve our neighbours. As Jeremiah stated, our mandate is to bloom where we are planted, even as we are in exile in the City of Man. In all that we do to engage the world around us, the art of discernment is central. We sow the seed of the good news into various types of soils, which we need to understand. A good launch point is the maxim ‘know thyself,’ which is accomplished by examining and preparing our own hearts. From there we move on to adopt an appropriate mental and spiritual posture to become rightly related to the world around us. As we work these things through, we will develop the tools and mindset to engage our culture meaningfully.
[1] Pastor Dan Scott, July 2026 Wilberforce letter as shared on Facebook July 13, 2026.
[2] James 4:1 (ESV).
[3] Jonathan Haidt, The Happiness Hypothesis Finding Modern Truth in Ancient Wisdom (New York: Basic Books, 2006), 4.
[4] This is the First Principle and Foundation of the Spiritual Exercises of Ignatius of Loyola.
[5] William A. Barry and Robert G. Doherty, Contemplatives in Action: The Jesuit Way (New York: Paulist Press, 2002), 9.
[6] Michael Ivens, Understanding the Spiritual Exercises (Leominster, Herefordshire: Gracewing, 2016), 33.
[7] Jim Manney, A Simple, Life-Changing Prayer: Discovering the Power of St. Ignatius Loyola’s Examen (Chicago: Loyola Press, 2011).
[8] See: https://www.ignatianspirituality.com/examen-prayer-card/ Accessed August 6, 2026.
[9] Jeremiah chapter 29.
[10] Eugene H. Peterson. The Contemplative Pastor: Returning to the Art of Spiritual Direction, loc. 47 of 1463, Kindle.
[11] Ignatius Loyola and Louis J. Puhl, The Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius: Based on Studies in the Language of the Autograph (Chicago: Loyola University Press, 1951), 18.
[12] See: https://www.ignatianspirituality.com/ignatian-indifference/ Accessed August 6, 2026.
[13] Pastor Dan Scott, July 2026 Wilberforce letter as shared on Facebook July 13, 2026.
[14] See Part One of Stephen R. Covey, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1989).
Ken Light has lived in Latin America and then worked in the oil industry in the Middle East for 8 years. He and his wife Susan have 5 children. Currently, he is an Anglican pastor serving as a missionary at a major Canadian University.