Smash face or love in?

Yesterday someone who is close to me harshly lambasted Words for the Day; not for any specific devotion that I have recently written, but for the ENTIRE effort. It came at a bad time for me. My stepmother is suffering and is succumbing to a slow, agonizing, death, whereby each hour she lives is sheer torment as she smothers to death with malfunctioning lungs. Dealing with the stress of watching someone you love die like that is just awful for the entire family.

Combine that with the fact that now I’m sick. (I sat next to a guy on the plane that was sneezing, coughing, and blowing his nose the entire flight and now I’m following suite.) I’m also exhausted, having been working 80 and 90 hour weeks for months on end. So here I am stressed out, sick, and dead tired, and now someone is criticizing me for writing WFTD. Jeez Unsubscribe already

A few months back I celebrated ten years of writing WFTD. I write it five days a week and I must admit that at times it’s a burden, but far more times it’s a joy, especially on the occasions when people write to me and tell me that they were helped in some way by it. I don’t do it to try and enrich myself, or for any other purpose than to try and help people. I study the Bible daily and try to apply it to whatever is happening in my life at the moment, or to someone that I know, or our nation. One day I decided to share my Bible study with my employees and then others started subscribing and that is how it all came about.

It is my hope that others might at times relate and find some comfort in what I’ve discovered in the Bible, especially those who do not make the time to study it daily themselves, or for those who do not even own a Bible for that matter.

Admittedly I’m not a normal person, (with my background, who could be). Through the years there have been entries that offend people. I have a fundamental belief system, meaning I believe that the Bible is the holy inspired word of God, EVERY WORD OF IT. I don’t think we can water it down because Presidents, congressmen, priests, liberal ministers, women’s lippers, gay rights advocates, abortion advocates, union leaders, the ACLU, or whoever thinks those portions of Scripture are no longer valid. The Bible states that God is the same today, as yesterday, as He will be tomorrow and that the Bible is His holy inspired word and it will never change and I think that is awesome. He doesn’t take any polls and then decide what to say. It is what it is and that gives me comfort.

I suppose I could be more diplomatic sometimes, but instead I just tell it the way I see it and at least others understand how I interpret the Bible. As far as I can remember I have only criticized two people who were trying to do God’s work. These criticisms were twenty some odd years apart. Both were pastors and I felt that they were not being prudent stewards of God’s money and I offered some constructive criticism and unsolicited advice. I felt entitled to do that because I had contributed mightily to both of those churches.

Neither took my advice. One appreciated it though and we are still close friends to this day, and the other got madder than a hornet and in essence cut off all communication with me.

I think I understand their frustration. They are doing the best they know how to serve God. When someone criticizes them for it, well naturally it stings. We all might want to think twice before criticizing our pastor, Sunday school teacher, or some unconventional program like mine where some uneducated former junkie is just trying to spread the word of God in the best way he knows how.

If you have been criticized for trying your best to do God’s work, your response to criticism should be a testimony of God’s grace in your life. In your weakness Christ is your strength. Remember that your response to criticism is a good barometer of your spirituality. If you are wrong, admit it. Offer an apology in a spirit of humility. Keep a list of times when you wrongly criticized people, programs, and situations. This will keep your spirit humble and right. Don’t retaliate. Dealing with your critics is difficult because you often feel the pain of their criticism and it clouds your judgment. It’s essential to demonstrate the spirit of Christ and avoid retaliation.

One of the primary qualifications of an effective leader is the ability to handle criticism. Criticism is a part of every leader’s life. If you have a thin skin, it’s hard to handle the sharp barbs of critics. However, if you have a thick skin, even when you are stressed, sick, and tired and satan is attacking you with all out war, you can remain sensitive to the needs and warnings of others.

Many leaders fear getting hurt. Unfortunately, getting hurt will happen when you’re a leader, (regardless if you take risks and make changes). It’s part of the price you pay. Determine to accept both the pain and joy of being a leader.

Some of this must have soaked into my thick skull because forty years ago I would have smashed my critic’s face with a baseball bat and now I want to love them to death. Go figure

Have a great Labor Day weekend!

Romans 12:19

Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,” says the Lord.