Discernment

A whiff of freezing cold air entered the small Intake area when 2 police officers brought in a drunk male arrestee. Speaking in another language, the same officer interpreted for me. He just answered “no” to all of the questions I asked if he had any mental or medical problems. It was to determine if he was medically or mentally fit to stay in the jail.

He approached a nearby wall to be searched by our prison's deputies for any dangerous things like drugs or weapons. I stopped our deputies right there because if I didn’t want to admit that arrestee, their search would be useless. The officers and our own deputies were amazed and were all wondering why I did that.

I asked the interpreting officer to continue to interpret for me.

“Pull up your right pant leg!,” I ordered.

Intoxicated, he could barely understand my command on top of the language barrier between us. As his breathing was let out and alcohol reeked in that tiny space. He ended up kneeling down on the floor to remain stable and slightly pulled the pant leg up. His black sock was knee-high…He got back up again as the officers’ eyebrows were still raised and with confused look painted on their faces, kept staring at me, but seemed to be hesitant to question my actions.

“No, sir! Get back down and pull up your pant leg and pull down your sock!” I commanded again.

As he struggled to prevent from falling, he slowly lowered his right leg sock. A draining abscess or wound emerged into everyone’s view. The tissues around it was very red, swollen and some tissues were already turning black. This meant he has a massive infection going on, on that leg.

“Eewww…What was that?”, asked one of our deputies, as the arresting officers both let out a deep breath. They both knew what it meant. I wouldn’t accept their arrestee. They needed to bring him now to the county’s hospital to be treated before bringing him back to the county’s main correctional facility, not to the one I was working in that night.

The deputies working with me smiled at me and asked, “How did you know that nurse? That was awesome!”

“It’s a gut feeling,” I answered as I went back to the prison’s Clinic.

"Thank you, Ma'am," uttered one of the police officer.

"You're welcome and please stay safe out there," I hollered back.


A gut feeling…Learned by years of experience. To see beyond what is obscure. We need discernment, too in our spiritual walks. But it is important that we must judge or discern things properly. In everything that we do, it’s clear that we must judge properly even before we act. That’s where discernment comes. I pray the Lord will give us all, His children discernment so that we can become effective in whatever ministry we are assigned with. We must be willing to ask, wait, listen to Him so we can gain discernment. Then we can know what God also has willed for us.

James 1:5 - “If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given unto him.”

Isaiah 11:2-3 - “The Spirit of the Lord will rest upon him - the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding, the Spirit of counsel and power, the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord - and he will delight in the fear of the Lord. He will not judge by what he sees with his eyes, or decide by what he hears with his ears.”

1Corinthians 6:2-3 - “Do you not know that God’s people will judge the world? And if you are to judge the world, are you not competent to judge the trivial cases? Do you not know that we will judge angels? How much more the things of this life!”