Learn to love the Critic: God is Speaking!
Is this a place for a pastor to share his heart? Is this a place for the people who follow my ministry to connect with the reality that I am the furthest thing from some big-time radio preacher . . . just a fellow Christian on this journey of following Jesus and trying to get it right? Yeah, that’s what I think this blog is about, so let me tell you the way things really are. I am beginning a sabbatical and trying to get some rest. As I begin I must confess that I continue to go through an extended season of personal wounding in ministry. It’s not coming from one person or place, but from a variety of sources. I am under no illusion that this is anyone’s doing but my own, truly.
I am into truth-telling in private contexts, but I am not into pointing the finger in public. In fact I really prefer for others to pick up their own mirror and figure out what God is teaching them. I can only say that I have not found very many believers willing to reciprocate my heartfelt passion that we must always hear and humbly respond to the difficult criticisms of others. In fact I believe that we should assume even as a brother or sister is speaking to us that what they are telling us is true. It is truly their perception and that in itself gives it substantive validity.
I have just completed a personal inventory using what is known as a “level three” instrument (only two others in the world, see www.flippengroup.com). It involves a lengthy personal inventory completed by you and 6 associates that know you best, and is used by high capacity leaders in every sector around the world. Good news = I have a lot of strengths and everyone sees them; bad news = I have a lot of weaknesses and everyone sees them. 
I sat down with the organization that administers this inventory. They were brutally frank with me about a lot areas I need to see and grow in and I loved it, not because it was easy, but because fact based, unfiltered feedback is really hard to come by. I try to see this kind of input as God coming to us through that person.
The channel He uses is often imperfect and could easily distract us from His voice. But don’t let your desire to dismiss the message by disqualifying the messenger get the best of you. Somewhere in the middle of the whitewater racing toward us, somewhere in the center of that stream of criticism, is God’s voice and the pure water of His will for us. Whenever I have nourished my thirst for greater Christ-likeness from that living water it has satisfied my soul deeply and changed my life dramatically. I am excited to be in the rapids again, spending my sabbatical paddling toward personal life transformation. I know God has used this season of wounding to prepare me for the part that is painful.
I must refuse to be distracted by those who refuse the mirror of God’s word and prefer self-imposed oblivion and move away from the fire whenever it gets too hot. My passion must be to be a man of God’s Word, first and foremost in the way that impacts my own heart. More and more I see the tougher seasons of relational let down as a time when God is pulling us back and more deeply into His Word. I praise Him for it!
Ps 119:67, Before I was afflicted I went astray, but now I keep Your word.
Ps 119:71, It is good for me that I was afflicted, that I may learn Your statutes.
Ps 119:75, I know, O LORD, that Your judgments are righteous, and that in faithfulness You have afflicted me.
Yeah that’s it for sure. God faithfully using others to pull us more deeply into His Word and into His Son. And that’s a good thing, a really good thing!
U R loved, and God is good!
James
PS> Tune in thursday for more dramatically lame illustrations, keep those votes coming.
Categorized as: Christian Life, From James, Relationships
