Criticism
Got this from Noel who got it from somewhere else.
"I have long prided myself as being a critical thinker. Through years of practice and perseverance I have developed a well-honed ability to spot weakness, problems, and things that suck in pretty much anything. The last few years of my Christian life have revolved around applying this nearly prodigious skill to understanding the church and helping it to become relevant. I am sad to say that I have become an expert at finding the bad in everything, and the worst part of it is that I am often proud of this fact.
Just this week I realized that there is nothing to be proud of in my critical nature. Yes I can spot weakness and brokenness a mile away, especially in the church, but what's so hard about that. Brokenness, sin, and imperfection are everywhere. We live in a world where very few things work the way they should. Those of us who are master critics are really just stating the obvious and fooling ourselves into thinking that we are really clever. Think about it… how hard is it to go out and find something wrong with a church or a person? Any monkey can do that.
I have decided that the real bright people are the ones who have learned to find beauty in everything or to find God in everything. Now that’s a challenge. The last few days have been a challenge for me since I am really trying to live this out. I want to learn how to be someone who sees God in the world today instead of being someone who is always focused on the crap. I’m hoping to get to the place where I am no longer surprised or judgemental when I see brokenness or garbage, where I acknowledge the crap but get truly amazed and surprised by the way that God’s grace is there despite it."
posted by Dan Price @ 4:01 PM
1 Comments:
Hey Dan,
Paul Marshall here. "Better to light a candle than to curse the darkness," is a valuable truism. Criticism is fine and necessary when balanced with the loving positive action of example. I think it's good to recognize when you've gone too far and got out of balance.
I think there's probably still too much criticism devoid of or lacking in love going on in the church. And this is a very tolerant age! The lack of love, forgiveness, and service will always be the need, because we always fall short of the example of Jesus. His criticism was severe to those who thought they were righteous, but were actually hypocrites.
I think when we criticize without seeing ourselves in humility is when we are most likely to be hypocritical.
Hope you and the family are doing great. Noticed that the kid's middle name is "Catcher." What turns you on so much about that novel? I found it interesting, but not without some serious negatives. Wow, maybe I'm being unfairly critical! :-)
Paul
www.blogspot.com/bishoprong
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