Author: Wes White

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Expect Opposition

In every good endeavor, expect opposition.

As soon as we get a vision for something good, our tendency is to think, “I’ve got the vision! It’ll be easy!” I want to lose weight, so I can do it. I want to become a writer, so I can do it. I want to make the basketball team, so I can do it.

Then, we crash. We give up. Why? We face opposition.

Recently, I listened to a podcast with author Steven Pressfield. He wrote a book called The Warrior Ethos. In the podcast he explains that the warrior ethos is one that applies to all of life. He noticed this when he started to write. He realized that there was opposition–laziness, distractions, perfectionism, worry, people. Within and without, life was battling against him to keep him from writing. Like a warrior, he needed to go to battle against that opposition.

Opposition to the good comes primarily from three places: the world, the people around us, and ourselves.

The world system seems to oppose us. It’s almost like it conspires to keep us from doing good. We have good plans, but things keep happening that derail them. We want to save money, but things keep breaking down. We want to devote ourselves to writing, but urgent demands keep getting in the way. The world presents us to us innumerable alluring things to lure us away from the good that we would do.

Other people also oppose us. Sometimes, they do it deliberately. They say, “You can’t do that!” “That’s a waste of time,” or “You’ll never amount to anything.” Sometimes opposition is not deliberate. People just have their own agendas, and they subconsciously apply emotional pressure to get us on their agenda.

The world and people would not be nearly so powerful, though, if it did not have an ally within our own hearts. We are our own greatest opposition. We were excited about doing something, but now we’re not as excited. We think we should wait until we feel more “in the spirit” to do something. We see things around us that excite us more in the moment. We think we need more rest than we do. We waste our energy on fruitless things. We just get lazy. The list goes on and on. This is just opposition.

I think here of exercise. Food and diet advice comes and goes, but if there is one thing that doctors are sure of, it is that regular exercise will help us. We all know this. So, why don’t we do it? Opposition, mostly from within ourselves. When it comes to exercise, there is rarely a time that you really feel like doing it, especially tough exercise. You just have to do it. It’s one of those touchstones of discipline in our lives.

In the Christian faith, God gives us great and precious promises to enable us to live a whole, virtuous, and good life that reflects His glory. He forgives all our sins and sets us on a new path. We don’t have to live as slaves to our lust or our pride or our anger anymore. This is good news. When people hear it, they like it.

But one thing the Bible also teaches us is: expect opposition. It drills this into our heads, but the moment we as Christians face opposition, what do we do? We cry out and complain as if God had never warned us about this! We don’t expect opposition. We always seem surprised by it.

When it comes to doing that which is good, we should expect opposition.

That’s a hard truth, but a helpful one. If we can learn to say in every good endeavor, “there will be opposition,” then we can prepare. We can plan. We can engage. Expecting it, we won’t be as discouraged when we encounter it. Additionally, when we take opposition seriously, we have the opportunity to consider the resources we have to stand up against it.

On the other hand, if we think that there won’t be opposition, then we will get discouraged the moment we encounter it. We will take it as some sort of sign that things are amiss and abandon the endeavor.

To steel ourselves to do what is good, expect opposition!

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The Messages We Tell Ourselves

Behind our emotions are stories. We tell ourselves messages that shape our hearts and minds and actions.

These messages may drive us forward, messages like “you have skill,” “you can learn,” “you will be alright,” “people like you,” “God will take care of you,” and so on.

Other messages keep us from moving forward: “you are not valuable,” “you are incompetent,” “you will lose everything,” “people will not like you,” “you will be alone,” “you won’t have resources,” and so on.

It’s not always easy to know what these messages are. They are often buried so deep that they are not readily available to our consciousness.

Here’s one example from my own life.

My wife is a homemaker, and, throughout our married life, I have often been frustrated with the state of the house. It has taken me a long time to understand the message I am telling myself: I can’t be OK if the house is in disorder. This, of course, is not true, but it’s what I’ve told myself over and over.

Thinking a bit more about this message, I started to wonder where that message came from. My personality is inclined to want an orderly environment, but I dug deeper. I realized my Mother was a very orderly person. I regard this as a real virtue. She kept the house in virtually perfect order. I grew up expecting that this was how the house would be. Without my effort, the house was just always magically in order!

Then, I started thinking about my wife. She is much more tolerant of chaos and disorder than my Mother was. She can function very well with things being disorganized and stuff being everywhere. I actually regard this as a real virtue as well, one I need to grow in!

There is another difference between my Mom and my wife. My Mom had two children. My wife has seven! It’s just not going to work out the same way, no matter how much we may want it to.

The seven children show a great variety in their toleration for cleanliness and order. I have one daughter who is able to function in conditions that would drive my crazy. Below is a picture of the work conditions in which she made clothes for her dolls. I really admire her ability to adapt to almost any condition!

All these reflections have helped me change my attitude about the house. Instead of frustration, I can even feel admiration for how my wife holds things together and is able to do so well in the midst of so many distractions in our house.

How was I able to get there? I had to take time to really think through the message that I was telling myself. I had to peel back the layers and see something of what was going on in my mind and heart.

I think the first step in the transformation of our character and mentality is beginning to ask, what is the message I am telling myself? Then, we can evaluate its truth and value.

The messages we tell ourselves shape our lives, but we they don’t have to be. We can discover what these messages are and choose to tell different ones. In my view, this is one key to learning to live a different and better type of life.

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Pursuing Excellence

When you think of excellence, who do you think of? Lebron James, Albert Einstein, Muhammed Ali, Thomas Edison, or Ludwig Beethoven? All of these people accomplished great things.

The reality is, though, that most of us won’t be pro basketball players or boxers or famous scientists or compose musical numbers that people will enjoy listening to centuries after our deaths. No matter how hard we work, pray, or think, these things will not happen.

However, the door to an excellence that is greater than anything these men accomplished is wide open to everyone. That is the excellence of reflecting the glory of God!

How do we do this? We do it through virtue. Virtue is an excellent trait that shows the nobility and glory of humans and reflects the glory of God.

Humans were created in the image of God to reflect the glory of God, but this glory is diminished by original and actual sin. Corruption rather than virtue more often characterizes the human race. The goal of the Christian faith is to restore human beings to their original glory, excellence, and virtue.

What does this look like? The Apostle Peter provides us a beautiful description in his opening exhortation in 2 Peter 1:3-11. He begins by telling us that we now have everything we need for a godly life. How? Through God’s own virtue (same word as virtue in the Greek, v. 3). It is His own excellence that provides for us what we need to live a godly life.

When we think of a godly life, it is important that we think not merely of doing the right things or not doing the wrong things. It is about who we are. It is about characteristics that are excellent and noble that reflect the glory of God, participating, as it were, in the divine nature (see 2 Pet. 1:4).

After laying that groundwork, Peter explains what those characteristics are. He says, “For this very reason, make every effort, be totally zealous, to add to your faith virtue and to virtue knowledge and to knowledge self-control and to self-control endurance and to endurance godliness and to godliness brotherly love and to brotherly love, a love that reflects God’s love for lost sinners (agape love).”

This list does not exhaust the excellent character traits that reflect the glory of God, but they provide a helpful overview.

When we think of these characteristics, it is easy for us to miss that they are all about joy and happiness. When we think of God, we should see Him as being eternally content and happy. He has everything He needs for total and perfect happiness. He is the One who is creative and delights in making things. He is so full of goodness that His goodness cannot but overflow.

That’s the excellence that we should pursue. We should seek to be happy and joyful people because we are filled with the sufficiency of God. We delight in the good that God is and the good that He creates. We are filled with joy because we expect good things from Him, and so we don’t need to desire things that are not good or reasonable for us (self-control). Like God, we move out of this sufficiency to create and to love, even the most unlovable.

That is the glory that is available to each and every human being and that God offers to us as a gift.

If it is so available, why do we not see more people who reflect that glory? Because it involves serious effort. It takes zeal. We have to work at it. This does not mean simply trying harder. It means enlightening our minds through the means of grace, engaging prayerfully in the world with a new mindset, and enlisting folk to help us and serve as examples.

At the same time, it’s not an effort that is beyond normal human reach. It is available to us. His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life. The burden and yoke of Jesus is a light one that actually gives us rest and gives us an excellence that reflects the transcendent glory of God. The power, promises, and presence of God are always available. We can become people of virtue, people whose character reflects the glory of God.

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Can We Change for the Better?

Can people who are fearful become courageous? Can those who are impatient become patient? Can the joyless become joyful?

To that, I answer an emphatic “yes!!!”

Here’s why I think this is true. First, I studied family systems over the past couple of years. I read many stories of people who were able to function differently in the challenging emotional environment of their family. It was hard, but they did it.

Second, I studied the Greek and Roman philosophers. Through the study of philosophy, many people were able to change for the better. They could learn to live by principle rather than by whim or reacting to emotional pressure.

Third, people train their emotions and will in many areas of life. People can learn to keep their body moving forward in the face of great danger. The philosopher Seneca described this well: “[T]he body can be trained to such a degree of endurance that it will stand the blows and kicks of several opponents at once and to such a degree that a man can last out the day and resist the scorching sun in the midst of the burning dust, drenched all the while with his own blood . . .” (Letters, LXXX).

He then goes on to ask: “[I]f this can be done, how much more easily might the mind be toughened so that it could receive the blows of Fortune and not be conquered, so that it might struggle to its feet again after it has been laid low, after it has been trampled under foot?” (Ibid., emphasis mine). In other words, can we not change our mindset to be able to keep moving forward in the face of great difficulties and disappointments?

As a Christian, why do I not argue for change from Christ transforming people? I certainly believe in the power of God in the lives of individuals. I have observed it in my own life and the life of countless others. I find, however, that many people underestimate what God can do because they don’t see that change is possible in ordinary life. In other words, if people can change so much without Christ, how much with Him?

So, “Great,” you might say, “some people changed. But how can I do it? How can I change?”

The first thing to recognize is that it is hard work. This is true in the realm of nature and the realm of grace. Sometimes, there is supernatural intervention that radically transforms people, but more often than not, it takes hard work. God uses hard work to transform people (Phil. 2:12-13, 2 Peter 1:5).

But what kind of hard work? John Ortberg in one of his talks at a conference called Living in Christ’s Presence asked the people attending that conference, “How many of you could run a marathon right now?” There were a couple. Then, he asked, “How many of you could run a marathon if you tried harder?” Of course, no new people raised their hands. Often, we think that change is a matter of trying harder. It is not. It is about the right training over a long period of time.

This is more than a loose analogy. The Apostle Paul used the word used for training in the gymnasium in his day and said, “Train yourself to be godly” (1 Tim. 4:7-8).

What does this training look like? In sum, developing virtue involves a changed mindset implemented in action over time that becomes a habit or character trait.

How would this work? let’s take patience as an example. Ask some questions of yourself: what are the circumstances in which you act impatiently? Does impatience help you? What are the results? What are you afraid of that causes you to be impatient? Developing a better mindset includes confronting a wrong mindset.

The positive side is to impress on your mind the better ways of thinking. To discover that you can ask questions like, what helps me be more patient? What thought or mindset has helped me be more patient in the past? What would be the positive benefit of patience? And so on.

Then, you need to practice. Put yourself in situations where you will need to be patient. Try to slow down and be OK with with it. Most of us have opportunities for this every single day: driving. We can work on being patient while we drive.

Over time, such work will begin to take effect. That doesn’t mean you’ll be perfect or problem-free. It just means you’ll get better.

That’s virtue training, training for excellence of character.

I believe that we don’t have to settle for where we have been in the past. I believe change is possible. God has given us everything we need for a godly life. We just need to step out in faith and start moving. His power, promises, and presence will be with us every step of the way.

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The Glory of the High Priest

This week, I have been studying the high priest in Exodus 28. In some ways, it is so simple. The high priest went before God on behalf of the people in the temple of the Lord.

On the other side, the detailed garments and activities call for serious reflection. As the 17th century Dutch theologian Wilhelmus à Brakel said: “The entire priesthood, and particularly the high priest, was a glorious type of the Lord Jesus Christ, as the apostle subsequently shows us in his letter to the Hebrews. Furthermore, each particular matter had its specific meaning.” He found what I have found: “meditation thereon [is] a sweet work.”

The high priest teaches us much about God, the world, humans as God created them, Jesus, and the restored humanity in Christ. All of this is worth reflecting on in detail.

Here let me just point out one of my favorites. On the shoulder straps, the priest would have onyx stones, and on those onyx stones, an engraver would engrave the names of the tribes of Israel. Thus, “[The high priest] is to bear the names on his shoulders as a memorial before the Lord” (Ex. 28:12).

The high priest would not only wear the names of Israel on his shoulders. He would wear them over his heart. On the breastplate, he bore 12 different types of stone that each represented the tribes of Israel. The workers would engrave the names of the 12 tribes of Israel on the stones. In this way, “[w]henever [the high priest] enters the Holy Place, he will bear the names of the sons of Israel over his heart on the breastpiece of decision as a continuing memorial before the Lord” (Ex. 28:29).

What is the significance of this? I think this is especially fulfilled in Christ. He is our great high priest who carries the names of His people on His heart before His Father. We should think of Jesus as the One who has us on His heart and written on His hands: “See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands . . .” (Is. 49:16). As the author of Hebrews writes: “Therefore he is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them” (Heb. 7:25).

This should afford us tremendous comfort and joy. We have an advocate before the very throne of God who will not fail to pray for us and seek our good, Jesus! A colonial New England Pastor, Samuel Mather, captured this beautifully:

How should faith triumph in this? Is not our High Priest in the Sanctuary? Is He not clothed with garments of righteousness and salvation? And doth He not bear the names of His people upon his shoulders and upon his breasts before the Lord? Thy particular concerns (if thou are a believer) are written upon His heart with the pen of a diamond, in such lasting letters of loving-kindness as shall never be blotted out.

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