Protecting Ourselves To Death

"Sometimes we want to 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 church that is merely comfortable, that never evangelizes, never encourages its people to stand on the front line, will never be a strong, never be a grateful, never be able to sort out profoundly Christian priorities."

--D.A. Carson, How Long, O Lord? Reflections on Suffering and Evil (2006 A.D.)