Enough Opposition To Make Them Strong

Sometimes we want to protect our children or our flock from too many things. For instance, we sometimes try to protect them from the caustic scorn of peers who have little time for Christian values. After all, we console ourselves, the Bible says much about earning a good reputation with outsiders. But that reputation is for integrity, kindness, love; it is never to be won at the expense of silence. I look at my children, and I wish for them enough opposition to make them strong, enough insults to make them choose, enough hard decisions to make them see that following Jesus brings with it a cost - a cost eminently worth it, but still a cost. A church that is merely comfortable, that never evangelizes, never encourage its people to stand on the front line, will never be strong, never be grateful, never be able to sort out profoundly Christian priorities.

- D.A. Carson, How Long O Lord?, p. 78