My first attempts at building a blog/newsletter were…well, we’ll just call them ‘instructive learning experiences’.
I started back in 1999, fresh out of college, emailing my friends eclectic music recommendations that I knew they would love. That lasted just a few months.
Over the years that followed, I tried writing about sports, business, tech, the Black experience, product management — and probably one or two others that I’m forgetting.
I was sensing the call to write, but not sensing the true direction that God intended. Those wayward ‘learnings’ just about led me to stop writing entirely.
The truth is that clarity can only come when we have something to compare it against. Taking a few bad turns — getting lost, or finding ourselves at an unexpected dead end — is how we learn to read the map correctly. That’s called discernment, the ability to sense and comprehend the will of God, and it’s one of the key learnings we can take from Paul’s ministry experiences in Acts 16.
“And they went through the region of Phrygia and Galatia, having been forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia. And when they had come up to Mysia, they attempted to go into Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus did not allow them. So, passing by Mysia, they went down to Troas. And a vision appeared to Paul in the night: a man of Macedonia was standing there, urging him and saying, “Come over to Macedonia and help us.” And when Paul had seen the vision, immediately we sought to go on into Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them.”
Paul and his team weren't waiting around for a sign. They were already in motion, already committed to the work. But when they tried to travel into the province of Asia, the Holy Spirit blocked them. So they pivoted toward Bithynia. Blocked again. Two routes. Two closed doors. No explanation given.
Then Paul had a vision — a man from Macedonia, pleading for help.
Verse 10 says they concluded that God had called them there. That word matters. A conclusion is something you reach — through evidence, through conversation, through the weight of what's already happened. Two blocked routes, plus a vision, plus a shared discernment among people who understood the assignment. Not one potentially abstract sign, but a convergence of meaningful indicators.
We tend to want the vision without the blocked roads. We want the open door without the context of what needed to be closed first. We want clear paths, with no kind of obstacles. Ever.
But the blocked roads were part of the guidance. The Spirit's resistance in Asia wasn't a failure — it was information. It was God narrowing the field so that when the vision came, it landed in a prepared mind.
The problem is that most of us don't record any of this. We experience a closed door and call it discouragement. We feel a pull toward something new and call it revelation. We get one encouraging conversation and treat it like confirmation. None of those things, alone, is enough — and we know it, which is why the doubt keeps creeping back in.
What Paul's team modeled — whether they thought of it this way or not — was a kind of running evidence log. Scripture had shaped their understanding of where the gospel needed to go. Prayer was constant. Their gifts were already proven in the field. They had each other as counsel. The circumstances kept redirecting them. And when they finally arrived in Philippi, fruit emerged: Lydia and her household came to faith, and she opened her home to them.
That fruit didn't create the confirmation retroactively. But it did complete a picture that had been building across multiple sources.
I think about the people I know — maybe you're one of them — who are sitting on a vocational hypothesis right now. Something they've been testing, a bounded move they made a few months ago to see what would happen. And they're trying to figure out: is this it? Is this the direction?
The honest answer is that one data point won't tell you. One open door, one encouraging email, one Sunday where the sermon felt like it was written for you — none of that is the whole picture. But six sources of evidence, tracked honestly, with both the convergence and the contradictions visible? That's something you can actually work with.
Acts 16 gives us the pattern: guidance became clearer as evidence is accumulated. For vocational discernment, I’d name six places to keep watching: Scripture, prayer, gifts, counsel, circumstances, and fruit.
Not a checklist — a record. Something you can look at and say: here's what's pointing the same direction, and here's what's still unresolved.
Paul didn't get a full itinerary. He got a closed road, another closed road, and a vision. The team reached a conclusion together. Then they moved.
That's still how this works.
Your Next Move
Take a piece of paper and start an evidence log using the six sources: Scripture, prayer, gifts, counsel, circumstances, and fruit. Write down what you’ve felt, heard, and seen — and what trusted people have said. Then answer one question: What new destination is taking shape in your mind, and how is it different from the one you were heading toward?
Hit reply and tell me in one sentence: what do you feel you’re being redirected towards? I read every response.
BTW, if you’re looking for people to help you conclude the right direction, I’m creating fellowships for people that want to touch and agree — for real. Learn more at tuckerwhit.com/events.
