Contending With Our Wills
Fr. James Rooney
In my last article, I discussed the role of the human will in following Christ. I also mentioned that this concept is not always popular. Many people try Christianity but fall away or become indifferent because they find that serious discipleship is difficult. Learning that Christian discipleship expects them to make choices in life, they find that it is much easier on their will-power to continue as they were.
This propensity occurs because we sinners tend to prefer religion which requires little of us. The human will is so weak that attempting anything which we don’t WANT to do, or feel good about doing, seems nearly impossible. Some have said that, because of the influence of Original Sin on us, it is IMPOSSIBLE to exercise the will and that all we can do is cry out, “Lord have mercy.” Although this is true some of the time, is it not an absolute rule; much of our failure to will to obediently follow Jesus is due to our continuous repetitive sin and self indulgence, and in this article I want to focus on that part of the will which is in our power to change.
Much of our failure to exercise our wills is due to personal histories of doing the opposite of what we SHOULD do, and this means that we have not learned to exercise our will power to follow Christ. To change means to enter into struggle [what Orthodox Christians call “asceticism”] with our selves and to not let the difficulty of this proposition neutralize our intentions.
One reason we don’t succeed in the exercise of the will is because sin is habitual, and habits are generally difficult to alter. When we attempt to change, we expect efforts to alter our behavior to be simple, yet we frequently find them to be so ingrained in habit that willing and doing otherwise seems impossible or at least not possible without excessive effort. Overwhelmed by the possibilities we will to give up when, on the contrary, we should will to struggle until we succeed.
Sin is also familiar to us and we can become comfortable with it, but to will to change our lives is to walk into unfamiliar territory, so to speak. It is much easier to remain in that which is familiar to us, our sin patterns, than to experience the discomfort of struggling with changing our actions. This can be true even when we know better. Thus we will to do nothing, when we should will to move forward, no matter how strange the experience might seem at first.
A third reason for our failure to exercise our wills is the fact that many of us enjoy our sins. Let’s face it, sin can be very pleasurable. So can righteousness, by the way, but we must leave the pleasure of sin before we can experience the greater pleasure of doing right; that, however, will require action of the will. We will have to will to surrender certain pleasures, or the love for and need of certain pleasures, in order to gain something greater.
Laziness is another reason for not exercising the will. To do so requires effort, and many of us prefer to have a belief system which requires little of us. Sin and indifference are easy while righteousness can be extremely demanding. In a self-indulgent society, doing nothing is an enticing option when faced with the proposition of a spirituality which is hard work. .
Another barrier to exercise of the will is indifference. For many of us, we simply don’t care. This is sad, since it means that we have opted to simply exist in this life. Consider; if we aren’t living for something eternal, then why ARE we living? Indifference can be a significant barrier to exercise of the will.
There are many reasons why we don’t exercise our wills to be obedient to Christ. These reasons, however, can be changed, and the first act of the will in serving Christ is willing to enter into the process of changing everything in one’s life and heart which separates him from Christ. There truly is no Christian discipleship WITHOUT this exercise of the will. To do nothing is, in itself, an action of will, albeit a passive willing. To will to enter into the demands of Christian discipleship, however, is both active and decisive. As I mentioned above, this willingness is called “asceticism,” and it is this latter “willing” which is the essence of being Christian.