Book Recommendation: “The Way to Will-Power” by Henry Hazlitt

There are many good books you could read about how to get better at life. Jordan Peterson’s works are often recommended. James Clears’ Atomic Habits is helpful. Of course, I’m partial to my own book and highly recommend it from (mostly) pure motives.

But there is another work I recently rediscovered that deserves to be better known and (more importantly) more widely read. Henry Hazlitt is known as an advocate of free-market policies (or maybe non-policies would be a more accurate term). But, thanks to the Mises Institute some of his lesser known works are also available, including his The Way to Will-Power.

Be Like God: Stop Seeking Your Own Glory

It is not good to eat much honey, nor is it glorious to seek one’s own glory.
Proverbs 25:27 ESV

As the ESV note will tell you, the Hebrew is rather difficult. But taking this translation at face value, it warns you to act like the true and living God rather than as some false god. God doesn’t seek his own glory and nether should any man or woman because all of us are created in the image of God and designed to reflect his character.

Ungodliness is Trained

In my book, Solomon Says (Athanasius), I point out that godly living can be improved with practice. In that way it is like an athletic sport. As the Apostle Paul wrote to Timothy:

Have nothing to do with irreverent, silly myths. Rather train yourself for godliness; for while bodily training is of some value, godliness is of value in every way, as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come.
1 Timothy 4:7–8 ESV

Use Job As a Your Role Model and Encouragement

There was a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job, and that man was blameless and upright, one who feared God and turned away from evil…

The book of Job can be read as an address on “The Problem of Evil.” Job can be interpreted as Everyman and his situation as a picture of the human condition. Job’s three “friends” insist that his extreme suffering indicates extreme sin in Job’s life and tell him he must admit this or else he is accusing God of being unjust. Job refuses to acquiesce that he must be guilty of wrongdoing. Yet, he does not “curse God” either, as his wife tempted him to do (Job 2:5, 9-10).

Ultimately, God answers Job in a series of questions that he can’t answer and he confesses as much.

If You Are Going to Obey God, Expect Him to Punish You

A few weeks ago, a young man (I will call him “Martin”) told me he went to church on Sunday morning. Martin hadn’t initially planned to do so. In the age of lockdown and pandemic panic, it has become easy to “attend” church online. This individual was young, strong, healthy, and did not have much fear of Covid-19. But he did have an inclination to stay in his room and in his pajamas all morning. So Martin “went” online to watch the service at the church in another state—a church in which he had been raised.

As it happened that particular Sunday, the sermon was focused on the importance and blessing of local Christian community and worship. That message affected Martin so that he got dressed, left his room, and went to his local church service.

Where he was tormented by a bad sermon.

Whether Martin was right or wrong about the sermon is something that I will leave aside. The way he described it, I tended to agree with him. Maybe you would not. Or maybe his description was inaccurate. But assume for the moment that Martin was correct: What should I tell him? What do you tell someone who obeys God and, because of that obedient deed, has a horrible experience?

The words came out of my mouth before I could think to stop myself:

“Martin, God often punishes us for obeying him.”

Solomon’s Wisdom Explains Why Neera Tanden Won’t Be Confirmed

(Originally posted on March 9, 2021 at Townhall.com)

Last week Team Biden withdrew the nomination of Neera Tanden as Director of the Office of Management and Budget. The media reported that she would be appointed to another position in the Administration, just not one requiring Senate approval. This is a political story but it is a lesson for many of us in our financial and other life endeavors. Tanden had offended enough Senators through her Twitter account that she failed to gain majority support.

While the right of free speech seems simple, it’s actually quite complex. A guarantee that the civil government will not punish you for anything you say may be significant, but it also may induce a false sense of security. If everyone in society is free to respond to your words, then unpopular speech could have serious consequences without government reprisals of any kind or without any violence at all. Letting one’s faith in government passivity induce euphoric utterances without care or caution would mean ignoring other consequences.

Jesus Won the Crown of Thorns

Then the soldiers of the governor took Jesus into the governor’s headquarters, and they gathered the whole battalion before him. And they stripped him and put a scarlet robe on him, and twisting together a crown of thorns, they put it on his head and put a reed in his right hand. And kneeling before him, they mocked him, saying, “Hail, King of the Jews!” And they spit on him and took the reed and struck him on the head. And when they had mocked him, they stripped him of the robe and put his own clothes on him and led him away to crucify him.
Matthew 27:27–31 ESV

On one level, the crown of thorns was simply a torture device that served the additional purpose of humiliating Jesus. The soldiers wanted both to mock Jesus and to cause him pain. But the Gospels indicate that something more was going on. Pontius Pilate planned his inscription on the cross, “Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews” (John 19:19), to be nothing more than a humiliation of the Judeans before Rome. But the declaration on the cross in three languages was also a providential proclamation of the Gospel.

Building a Better Future

[I wrote this last year but never published it.]

***

We all want a better future. We want to see progress. We hope the next generation will prosper more than we did.

But how much control do we have over what the future looks like?

I ask this because it is common to view human history as an ongoing construction project and certain visionary famous persons as architects in that process.

But then Solomon kills the mood:

James & the Unity of Wisdom Literature

If you are tempted to think that Proverbs, Job, and Ecclesiastes contain different views of wisdom, perhaps you should consider the epistle of James. I appeal to James several times in my book, Solomon Says, because James says a lot about wisdom.

Deuteronomy, Exile, & God’s Transformation Agenda

A generic “Calvinist” reading of Deuteronomy is straightforward: At the time that Moses preached the text to Israel either many were unfaithful or following generations soon would be. This unfaithfulness can be best be understood as involving a large number of unregenerate Israelites. But Deuteronomy promises that God will one day cause Israel to be faithful, which probably means He will regenerate many of the Israelites at that time and in some number of subsequent generations.