It seems like these days everyone is a critic. People are critical of other poeples theology, performance, looks, status, etc...
I recently recieved a bit of criticism about the program I run. My critic left a written evaluation about my performance(I won't go into details, but lets just say this person was less than helpful). At first I was put off by the comments, even a bit indignant. Then I began thinking about how should I handle criticism? Should I listen to some or all of the critics that come my way? I know that you wont please everyone, and you shouldn't even try. So who do I listen to? I guess for me this is where the value of community comes in. I am more apt to listen to those who I trust and know where they are coming from. Criticism that comes off the cuff like a cheap sucker punch only makes me want to fight back. My old boss had a great bit of wisdom, he used to say, "I don't listen to the random praise and I don't listen to the random criticism." I think that there is a bit of wisdom in there. I guess that in this critical time, that gets hard to do sometimes, especially when everyone is a critic. I know that I need to be careful that I am not one of those people who lob critcal bombs at others.
To all the critics out there, I leave you with a story my pastor tells of a time when he did youth ministry. Bryan had just done a sucessful youth event, one that he thought went well. He showed up at the next board meeting to find himself the object of much criticism from the other board members. Bryan also tells that his Sr Pastor remained quite silent throughout the meeting, never coming to Bryan's defense. When the reaming had settled down a bit, the Sr Pastor looked around the room and said. "you know any jackass can kick down the barn from the inside, but it takes real skill to pick up a hammer and build. I know which ones of you in this room are the jackasses and which ones are the carpenters."
Which one are you?
No comments:
Post a Comment