Wes White

October 25, 2022

10 Quotes Reflecting on Christian Counseling

A few years back, in the process of working on my Doctor of Ministry, I read numerous books on Christian counseling. These were books on the theory of counseling and its application to specific issues. How do we engage and talk to people in such a way that helps people move forward to what God has called them to be? These are deep waters. Here are a few of my favorite quotes that I still reflect on with links to the books from which they came as I think about how to help myself and others move onward and upward, processing the past well, living well in the present, and having hope for the future.

1. “Tragedy always moves our story forward in a way that shalom could never accomplish” (Dan Allender, To Be Told, 44). My comment: think of the great stories of the heroes of the world and the faith. They experience great challenges, but they rise to meet them. This is one way to re-think the challenges and hurts we have faced in our own lives.

2. “It takes a lifetime to discover exactly how our past shapes our future so we can live wholeheartedly and passionately in the present, but we can begin. We can seize the present with greater insight and vision” (Dan Allender, The Healing Path, 185). My comment: I did a lot of reflecting on my past when I studied these books. Five years later, the insights continue to come and help me engage better in the present. Note: you can see some of the directions I explored with this here.

3. “[I]n this life we must recognize that we will inevitably experience disappointments, pain, and a lack of complete relational satisfaction. When we stop fighting this reality and become willing to accept it, we can be free to move into the world with a real sense of purpose and direction” (Harry Schaumburg, False Intimacy: Understanding the Struggle of Sexual Addiction, 99). My comment: this seems almost obvious when you say it, but how easily do we begin to think that we will avoid pain and disappointment? Happiness in this life will not be found by eliminating pain and disappointments but by finding a way to live with them. Continue reading “10 Quotes Reflecting on Christian Counseling”

October 20, 2022

7 Principles for Christian Social Engagement

As Christians, we want to see the world be a better place. Jesus has taught us to love our neighbor and to be concerned for the least of these. The problem is that when we try to get involved, we do not know what to do. We find it harder than we supposed. This can lead us to give up, but then what of our obligation to love the world?

In my view, few Christians have thought about this issue with as much clarity as the American theologian Reinhold Niebuhr. I have learned much from him. What I have learned has enabled me to keep going in big and small ways with outreach to the communities of which I am a part. Here I want to summarize seven principles that continue to be sources of wisdom, challenge, and encouragement to me when social engagement gets hard. I will not quote Niebuhr here. You can see my summary of his views on Christian political engagement here. I am just writing these in my own words, but my thought owes much to him.

1. There is no limit to human anxiety, insecurities, and ambitions. One reason it is so tough to engage with people is because we are filled with anxiety. Anxiety is part of human life. It arises from the fact that we can see all sorts of problems that we can do little or nothing about. We are anxious about our survival, our life, our possessions, our money, our kids, our nation, our significance, and on and on.

And there is no point where this stops. No matter how much we succeed there are always new problems. We have anxiety that we will lose the things we have gained or not reach the next level. In America and the West, we have solved a lot of problems that were huge issues for our ancestors, but we have simply run into bigger problems. Anxiety explains why people accept even bad situations. They fear that if they change them, they will encounter something much worse. In engaging with society, we are dealing with anxious people.

2. Human pride is born out of anxiety. Why do people exalt themselves at the expense of others? Why do they act in selfish ways? It is in part because of their anxiety. They are worried about their survival and the survival of the things they enjoy, and they will fight for their position and prestige as much as if it were their very life. Why does a nation invade others? It is in part out of the anxiety over the prosperity, prestige, or survival of their own nation. Why do people amass goods and not worry about others? It is in part anxiety over their own position. Why does a parent think they can continually make their child happy? Some of it is anxiety about their child, but it is also pride in their own ability to solve every problem for someone else.

Pride born of anxiety is a factor in human life. We stubbornly cling to our own position and power and exalt ourselves, our things, our people, and our ideas above others, even at the expense of truth and justice. This deserves our condemnation, but it also calls for compassion because it is born out of an attempt to solve the basic problems of life, relationships, meaning, and security that we all deal with. This can take some of the edge off of the opposition of others because it is born in part out of trying to solve the same problems that we ourselves are trying to solve.

3. Religion is not a pure quest for God, and reason can be just as fanatic as religion. Religion and reason should mitigate our anxiety and humble our pride. However, religion can easily become a tool of our pride. Thinking on the absolute, we identify ourselves with the absolute. We borrow the sacredness of the holy and apply it to our own faulty and sinful ideas and actions. We use it to exalt ourselves at the expense of others. Even the idea of grace, which should humble us, can become a way of looking down on others who don’t get it and baptizing all our ideas because we “understand” God’s grace. Continue reading “7 Principles for Christian Social Engagement”

October 11, 2022October 11, 2022

How to Live the Christian Faith Outside the Church: A Review of Cristóbal Krusen’s They Were Christians

When Cristóbal Krusen became a Christian, he thought he needed to become a Pastor to be a real Christian. As he tried to live his Christian faith outside of the work of the church, it made him wonder how other Christians had done it. How has Christianity affected those who believed it? Did it make an impact? He thought it must have because “[i]n truth, if God exists, then one should expect to find those who love him in every field of human endeavor” (This and all citations hereafter are from his book They Were Christians, 12). His book They Were Christians is the result of his search to find examples of people who put their Christian faith into action in the world. People like Florence Nightingale, John D. Rockefeller, and Frederick Douglas made a big impact on the world, and their story is well-known. However, Krusen wanted to tell the rest of the story. These people were Christians, and this made a big impact on what they did and why. That is less well-known.

I am a Pastor. I work for the institutional church. However, the majority of people in my congregation do not. One of my jobs is to help them think through how they can take the faith they hear about on Sunday and apply it to their lives. I can give them principles, but I have realized through the years that I also need examples and stories. So, I began to look at collections of Christian biographies. Most of the people in the collections were Pastors. Their examples were helpful but what about Christians who didn’t become pastors? That’s what I needed to inspire my people to live out their faith outside the church. When I saw Krusen’s book, I was intrigued. But I still wondered how much it would really help. Continue reading “How to Live the Christian Faith Outside the Church: A Review of Cristóbal Krusen’s They Were Christians“

October 6, 2022October 6, 2022

The Wonders of Egypt: The Pyramids Are Just the Beginning

If you mention the pyramids, what comes to people’s minds? Egypt. Would you like to visit them? “Yes!” Almost everybody would. I have had the privilege of visiting the pyramids twice in less than two years, but what I have found is that the pyramids are just the tip of the iceberg in Egypt. Egypt is a place like no other. The almost tropical scenes of the Nile allowed an amazing civilization to flourish, but the desert a few meters away preserved it for us today. It is a Muslim culture, but it is the home of some of the oldest churches in the world, some of which the large Christian minority still use. You can also find Greek and Roman history as well as the history of Arabs, Turks, British, and French. But the best part of Egypt for me is the people. They are a people who know hospitality, who are ready to dance, who know how to cook, and are ready to be your friend. For all of these reasons, Egypt is a destination you do not want to miss.

In this post, I want to describe what it is like to travel through Egypt and introduce you to the places I visited in two trips. Our trips consisted of six parts: Cairo, Aswan, Abu Simbel, the Nile, Luxor, and Hurghada. That’s our route in this article.

Cairo
Cairo is huge and filled with people. About 30 million people, one fourth of the population of Egypt, lives in and around Cairo. Make sure you see it from the air as you come in to get an idea of its size. The traffic is unbelievable. It makes driving anywhere in the United States look orderly and easy in comparison.

On the edges of Cairo, you come to Giza, still very crowded. There, you find the pyramids. No matter how many pictures you’ve seen, there is simply no way to do justice to the size and wonder of these ancient structures. There are three great pyramids named after the kings who built them, Khufu, Khafre, and Menkaure. You come first to the largest, the pyramid of Khufu. You can enter into this pyramid and ascend to the tomb deep within the pyramids. The second largest is that of Khafre, and the third is that of Menkaure.

Continue reading “The Wonders of Egypt: The Pyramids Are Just the Beginning”

September 15, 2022September 15, 2022

Visiting Bogotá

A few weeks ago, I had the privilege to visit Bogotá, Colombia. It was also my first time in South America. This trip was a bit different than my other trips. I did not do as much tourism as I ordinarily do. I was focused on taking care of a few things in my personal life. However, I did get to know the city, and I have a few thoughts for those who are considering travel to Colombia. For reasons I will explain below, this is probably useful for people who are considering traveling to other parts of Latin America as well.

Bogotá and the Tourist Areas of Latin America
There are many parts of Latin America where American gringos can go and enjoy a great time. Latin America is beautiful. The people are friendly. The culture is interesting. The dollar goes a long way. It is often cheaper to travel in Latin American than in the United States. In most of Latin America, you can travel easily with a few precautions like you might take in traveling to bigger cities in the United States, i.e., keeping on eye on your valuables, not getting drunk and wandering around the city, and avoiding the rougher areas of the city.

Based on my experience, Bogotá is just like that except for one qualification. It is very easy to visit, if you know Spanish. In traveling to Colombia, you will not encounter a lot of people who speak English like you would in the major tourist areas of Latin America. It is difficult for me to gauge exactly what it would be like to only speak English there, but it would seem to me that it would be a bit difficult to orient yourself. For example, I took Ubers wherever I went. I had great experiences with them, and I had great conversations with the drivers because I can speak Spanish. One driver told me of the frustration of someone who was not able to speak Spanish. They started to panic, and he didn’t know what to do. I am not saying that you will have big problems, if you do not know Spanish. I am just saying it will be more difficult to orient yourself to what is happening.

So, if you want to travel to Bogotá or the heartland areas of many Latin American countries, learn Spanish to the point you can have a decent conversation or go with someone who speaks it. With this ability, you can easily travel in Bogotá or countless other wonderful places in Latin America securely and without much hassle.

However, if you still want to try and do it, let me give you a few thoughts. Consider going with a company that will organize the whole trip for you. It is not that expensive compared to the U.S., and it will give you a guide throughout the country. If you do not want to do that, you can hire a private transport that will probably have English speakers, but it will cost quite a bit more than an Uber or other forms of transport. You can stay in many hotels where people will speak English. The reason for this is that not only Americans but foreigners from all over the world use English as the means of communication. Consider staying in a hotel that is part of one of the many wonderful malls or commercial centers (centro commerciales). These are the securest places in Bogotá, and you can walk around them freely. They are big and feature all sorts of amenities. Finally, take some tours that will pick you up at your hotel and feature an English speaking guide.

My Experience of Bogotá
If you do speak Spanish or have someone who does, then you can easily move around the city. Let me share a bit of my experience. I really did not know what to expect of Bogotá. I had heard so many stories. I read advice from all sorts of people. Two things were clear: Do not have your cell phone out because people may snatch it, and do not be out at night, especially alone. Continue reading “Visiting Bogotá”

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