There’s a reason heroes always pay a price.
They have convictions. It is the primary thing that sets them apart. All heroes, in order to be heroes, have to have convictions they’re willing to sacrifice and maybe even to die for.
To have convictions is one of the highest and most noble things a human can do. It is evidence that we are not just animals, but that we are indeed made in the image of God Himself. We do moral reasoning, not just answering a question about which thing is more efficient or which thing gets us the better result, but which thing is right.
Convictions acknowledge that we find ourselves not just in a physical universe but a world made by a righteous God who has given us a conscience that perceives our existence in moral and ethical terms as well.
It is the highest and most godlike level of our existence. We sit enthroned as the lord of our own value system, Master of our actions, controller of our own free will thinking about what we believe and what we don’t believe, and what we are going to allow ourselves to do and what we must never do.
The meaning of the word “Conviction.”
The word comes from the Latin convincere—”to overcome, to prove wrong, to conquer.” There’s something inherently victorious about a conviction. A conviction isn’t just a belief you hold casually; it’s a belief that has conquered your doubts, that has overcome alternatives. You arrive at convictions through some kind of inner struggle—a contest— and those convictions emerge triumphant. It’s beautiful.
To have convictions is both a privilege and a burden. It’s a privilege because its completely up to you and me to have convictions or not. It’s our choice. If we choose to have convictions, we are blessed with drive, meaning, purpose, and direction.
Today we’re talking about the privilege and the burden of having convictions. We’re going to talk about what it means to have convictions in a world that doesn’t want you to. We’ll explore why conviction is both a gift and a cost. And we’ll ask the question: Is it worth it?
Recap
If you missed the past three newsletters, we’ve been exploring the pain at the heart of the current faith crisis:
- Episode 1: The quiet exodus—40 million Americans leaving the church
- Episode 2: The paradox—being drawn to Jesus while repelled by Christianity
- Episode 3: The slow erosion of energy—ministry burnout and exhaustion
With this newsletter, we’re completing Act I: The Pain by talking about the privilege and pain of having convictions.
It’s important in our discussion because—if you’re questioning, deconstructing, reconstructing, searching for authentic faith—it’s, hopefully, because you have convictions. You believe something deeply. You’re not willing to settle for a version of Christianity that doesn’t align with Jesus. You’re not willing to just go along with the crowd. And that conviction is both a gift and a burden, it is privilege and it is pain. So let’s talk about it.
Here’s what I’ve learned over four decades of ministry: the only people who bring change are the people who have convictions and are willing to pay the price for them.
The Legacy of Convictions
We honor Martin Luther King Jr today because he had convictions about justice and equality and he was willing to sacrifice for these convictions. Mother Teresa had convictions about the level at which we are called to serve the poor and she was willing to endure the tension her proposals created with the catholic hierarchy. William Tyndale had a conviction that every human has a right to read the Bible in their language. It cost him his life.
What’s the difference in a conviction and an opinion?
A conviction is not the same as an opinion. An opinion is something flexible—you can and should change your opinion as you get new information. A conviction is your inner foundation, a core belief, a value.
Convictions are the non-negotiable. They’re the hills you’re willing to die on. They’re the truths you won’t compromise, even when it’s uncomfortable, even when it costs you something. So why is having convictions a privilege?
What convictions give us:
1. Meaning
Key to having a life of meaning and purpose is knowing the reason for your existence. You cannot know your purpose until you know your “Why?” and then live by it. This is the only way to a life that has meaning and purpose. So if you are floundering in your life. This is where you start. Find your central convictions. They give us our center so we can focus our energies and build our life around them.
We find our purpose in that for which we are willing to sacrifice ourselves.
Knowing our convictions and then following up by sacrificing our short life for them gives us the spine of our life. Without convictions, we may survive, but we don’t really live as a human. We just react as the animals do, moving from impulse to impulse, avoiding pressure, seeking comfort.
Our life can’t have a spine without convictions. They let us live toward something that demands something of us. We invest our energies and burn our days toward these ends. At the end of our life, our convictions, if we live them out, will define us and create the message we leave behind with our life.
When you believe something deeply, your life has purpose. You’re not just drifting through life, reacting to circumstances. You’re living intentionally, guided by principles that matter to you. You are choosing. You are driving your life according to a higher set of noble principles. You are reflecting the nobility that God has given to mankind. You are living as the image of God. Your convictions give you a reason to get up in the morning, a reason to keep going when things get hard.
2. Direction
Convictions are our life’s compass. When you’re faced with a decision, your convictions help you know which way to go. Should I take this job? Should I stay in this relationship? Should I speak up or stay silent? It’s your convictions that provide clarity in a confusing world of endless choices. If you repeatedly follow your convictions, it gives your life direction. Your convictions are the shaft in the arrow of your life. When you know what you believe, you are no longer paralyzed by confusion and indecision. You can move forward with confidence, ignoring endless options and choosing only the ones that match your convictions.
3. Identity
Your convictions shape who you are. There’s a coherence and a predictability that settles into who you are as a person. This predictable pattern eventually is the definition of who you are to yourself, and also to others. They’re like an unyielding blade that shapes who you are, how you live, and what you make yourself do and forbid yourself to do.
They’re not just beliefs you hold—they’re part of your identity. When you say, “I’m a follower of Jesus,” you’re not just stating a fact—you’re declaring your identity. Your convictions define you.
4. Community
Convictions connect you to others who share them. When you find people who believe what you believe, who value what you value, who are willing to sacrifice for what you’re willing to sacrifice—you’ve found your tribe. They empower you to stand firm with your community in difficult circumstances. When you believe deeply in something, you can endure opposition, criticism, and hardship because you’re rooted in principles that matter to you more than comfort or social approval.
5. Legacy
When you live by your convictions, you leave a mark on the world. You don’t just pass through life—you shape it. You influence the next generation. You change the world because your life has been grounded in something transcendent, and you have moral authority. Your convictions outlive you.
This is the privilege of having convictions. It’s a gift. It’s what makes life worth living. But, like everything valuable, it also comes at a cost. So what’s the cost?
But…convictions cost us
To have convictions is to pay a price. Here’s what it costs:
1. Comfort
Convictions always demand something of you.
Convictions create an obligation in you. Once you know what is right, you are responsible to act on it—although it is going to be inconvenient, costly, and uncomfortable.
They introduce friction, and they make your life harder. Once you believe something, you are no longer free to do whatever is easiest or safest. Your convictions disturb your comfort by putting you in tension. You have to constantly navigate a world that is indifferent to or disagreeable with your convictions. Part of this discomfort is having to deal with the gap that always exists between what we believe and how we actually live. This gap is painful because our convictions won’t let us hide from ourselves.
2. Social Cost
Convictions costs us socially. When you have convictions, not everyone is going to like you. Some people will think you’re too rigid, too judgmental, too extreme. They’ll say you’re “making everything about religion” or “taking things too seriously.” You’ll lose friends. You’ll be misunderstood. When you stand for something, you inevitably stand apart from someone else. For creatures wired for belonging, that really hurts.
3. Your Life
Throughout history, people with convictions have suffered the loss of reputation, the loss of relationships, the loss of comfort and security.
Followers of Jesus have often paid the ultimate price. Stephen was stoned to death. Peter was crucified upside down. Paul was beheaded. Millions of Christians in the last century have been martyred for their faith. And even today, in many parts of the world, following Jesus can cost you your life.
And here’s the question: Is it worth it?
Let me tell you a story that might help answer that question. I want to tell you about a woman I’ll call Maryam. She lives in Iran, where converting from Islam to Christianity is illegal and punishable by death.
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Convictions: Imagine having to choose between Christ and your child.
This is a true story I heard from someone who knows “Maryam” personally. It has impacted me deeply and I want to share it with you.
Maryam grew up in a devout Muslim family. She prayed five times a day, fasted during Ramadan, and followed all the rules. But she always felt like something was missing—like there was a distance between her and God that she couldn’t bridge.
Then, through a secret house church, she heard about Jesus. She heard that God loved her so much that He sent His Son to die for her. She had a powerful encounter with Jesus and became his disciple. This is where the power and pain of convictions started for her.
Maryam’s story illustrates something profound: Conviction costs, but it’s also the most valuable thing you can have.
Maryam’s husband demanded she renounce Christ, but she refused. He took her before a judge calling for him to grant a divorce and to strip her of contact with her daughter. It was a horrible test—follow Jesus and lose your child, or go back to Islam and renounce your relationship with Jesus.
She told the judge that her connection with Jesus was real. He told her to just say the words of renunciation even without meaning them in her heart and he would let her keep her relationship with her daughter. She replied, “What are my words then? God is listening to my words even now. I cannot deny Jesus.”
The judge sighed, granted the divorce, and stripped her of her child. She had to flee Iran for her own safety. All she could do now was to pray diligently for her daughter and trust Jesus to support her in her convictions.
Over the years she was allowed to speak regularly to her daughter by phone. When the child was old enough, she also became devoted to Jesus and joined her mother abroad. Her mom’s convictions were the light that guided her life from halfway around the world.
I’m so glad that story has a happy ending, but the point would be the same even if it did not. Convictions are the power that brings change in our personal world.
Here’s what I’ve learned about living with conviction:
1. Know what you believe and why.
Don’t just inherit your convictions from your parents, your pastor, or your culture. Examine them. Test them. Make sure they’re yours. Because when the cost comes—and it will—you need to know that your convictions are worth it.
2. Be willing to stand alone.
There will be times when you’re the only one standing for what’s right. When everyone else is going along with the crowd, you’ll have to stand firm. And that’s lonely. But remember: you’re not really alone. Jesus is with you. And throughout history, the people who changed the world were the ones who stood alone first. That’s what leaders are.
3. Count the cost—but don’t let it stop you.
Jesus said, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.” He didn’t sugarcoat it. Following Him will cost you. But He also said, “Whoever loses their life for me will find it.” The cost is real, but the reward is greater.
4. Find your people.
You can’t do this alone. You need a community of people who share your convictions, who will encourage you, challenge you, and stand with you. Find them. Build deep relationships with them. Because conviction is sustained in community.
5. Keep your eyes on Jesus.
When the cost feels too high, when you’re tempted to compromise, when you’re wondering if it’s worth it—look at Jesus. He had convictions about the kingdom of God, and He was willing to die for them. And because He did, we have hope. We have life. We have a future.
6. Don’t give up because of your own failure to live up to your convictions.
Simon Peter became the great early leader of the persecuted followers of Jesus. He was known to have a great marriage. He and his wife were inseparable. Despite the dangers they both faced, they roamed the Middle East together, encouraging the people of God until he was arrested and martyred leaving a powerful legacy until this day.
Peter built this life after one of the most extreme moral failures in the history of the church, denying Jesus three times out of fear.
People with convictions get back up, even when they fail to live up to their own standards. We are serving the God of the second chance.
That’s the privilege and the cost of having convictions.
What does conviction have to do with deconstruction and reconstruction?
The reason we need to talk about convictions on this podcast is that one of the reasons some sincere people are walking away from institutional Christianity is that the form of religion they’re experiencing does not align with their convictions about the way of Jesus.
They are voting with their feet to walk away. That’s one step, but embracing a more satisfactory way of following Jesus than some of the institutional systems you aren’t aligned with is going to take a lot more effort than just leaving the church you attend.
It’s a lot easier to just go to church and sit and follow along. If a person is just leaving Christianity because they got mad about something or someone wasn’t nice enough to them, or they think that the failure of another person is reason for them to walk away, then that’s up to them. But I’m convinced there are people out there that are walking away because of a deep set of personal convictions concerning Jesus.
You see, to really be a disciple of Jesus requires you to have convictions.
Wrap Up
So here we are, at the end of Act I: The Pain.
We’ve talked about:
- The quiet exodus—millions leaving the church
- The paradox of faith—being drawn to Jesus while repelled by a form of Christian religion
- The slow erosion of energy—ministry burnout and exhaustion from trying to prop up a failing system you no longer believe in.
- The privilege and cost of convictions—what it means to stand for something in a world that doesn’t want you to.
We’ve acknowledged the pain. We’ve named it. We’ve sat with it. But we can’t stay here.
Because pain without diagnosis is just suffering. And diagnosis without solution is just despair.
The Next Movement in This Series
So starting in our next episode, we’re moving into Act II: The Noise. We’re going to diagnose the problem. We’re going to look honestly at what’s gone wrong with Christianity and why so many people are feeling disconnected from it.
We’re going to talk about:
- Multiple voices and the chaos of having so many authoritative teachers and yet no central authority
- The Everything Religion and how Christianity has become a buffet where everyone picks and chooses
- Doctrinal chaos and the theological anarchy that results
- The Malleable Messiah and how we’ve recreated a Jesus in our own image
- Influence without authority and why Jesus has been subordinated in Christian systems around the world, despite all of our songs and nice words about him,
This next part might be a bit uncomfortable. We’re not going to belabor it and look for a million things done wrong, but we are determined to define the central problem that has introduced new corrupting code into the Jesus movement. We’re going to have to be honest about what’s broken.
But here’s my promise: diagnosis leads to solution. And the solution is coming.
It’s called ReJesus Everything! We’ll spend the last half our energy in this season unpacking how we can return to the simple (but challenging ) way of Jesus.
My deep desire is that this becomes a true discussion among us. You don’t have to agree with me. It’s just that some very large gears are turning within the Christian community globally, and mature people have to engage the forces causing millions of our youngest to look to other forms of spirituality, turning their back on the faith of their childhood.
Join the Community!
This topic is very close to our heart. Some of us are losing our children from the faith, and we are deeply disturbed about it. Some of us are very close to leaving Christianity ourselves, and we need the support of a group to process our thoughts openly. I really care about what’s happening in the faith lives of people around the world. That’s why I’m dedicating so much of my time and energy to this discussion.
Let’s take this as an opportunity to build a robust community of faith online. I will be deeply engaged in the comment section on these episodes which also play out a few days later on my YouTube channel. I will try to monitor the social media channels, but they move too quickly for me to keep up with.
If you want to get into deep discussion, please stay here on Substack at Quinley.com where I will put most of my energies this whole year.
Here’s our discussion question for the week: What conviction has cost you the most—and was it worth it?
I look forward to hearing from you in the chat box.
Let’s get Grounded!
Chuck
