You know I actually appreciate criticism. I find that I can thrive in a critical environment. Don’t get me wrong I love compliments too but I am awkward with them. I’m not sure what to do with a compliment. Compliments are like underserved gifts or like grace, for a task-oriented person like myself there is nothing you can do with a compliment – except receive it.
Criticism on the other hand must be responded to. Criticism can send a person into action. Compliments can do this too but to a lesser degree as affirmations of action already taken.
It occurs to me however that there are two kinds of critics. There are good critics and there are bad critics.
The bad critic is the person who does not like something but is unable to explain why. They are the person who drifts silently away from something without offering so much as a constructive explanation. The bad movie critic will trash a film and leave it at that. Often the bad critic is the one who sees their own hateful flaws in the people and things around them and responds by transfering this despisal of themselves into a despisal of the people and things around them. The thing about a bad critic is that they are a little like the boy who cried wolf – eventually they are ignored, which can be a very isolating experience.
The good critic on the otherhand offers criticism out of a sense of love and responsibility to the person or thing that is being criticized. The good critic considers the best way to present criticism and the good critic ALWAYS offers alternatives and suggestions to the area they are critical of. The good critic speaks without anger, resentment or a desire to hurt. In film the good critic is the one who offers helpful solutions to the issues they see.
In life there are bad critics and good critics everywhere. Within the church, as a body inspired and indwelt by Christ Himself there should only be good critics but, of course, this is not always the case. If we look to Christ as the example He always offers explanations with His criticsims. When He overturned the tables of the moneychangers in the temple this is what is recorded in John 14:13-16 –
"When it was almost time for the Jewish Passover, Jesus went up to Jerusalem. In the temple courts he found people selling cattle, sheep and doves, and others sitting at tables exchanging money. So he made a whip out of cords, and drove all from the temple courts, both sheep and cattle; he scattered the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. To those who sold doves he said, "Get these out of here! Stop turning my Father’s house into a market!"
If Christ were a bad critic He simply would have driven them from the temple and overturned their tables and said nothing. Or He might have walked away in disgust and never returned. Instead He offers a solution – remove these animals. Stop selling them here.
Christ’s anger stems from the reality at the time that the only way Israel could draw near God and seek forgiveness was to offer a ritually pure animal for sacrifice. The temple had set up a system of animal sales that gouged people to such a degree that the poor could not afford to sacrifice to God. Not only this but under this system you were not allowed to bring your own animals – you had to buy a temple animal. Christ’s anger stems from the fact that this system had set up an artificial barrier between God and His people and woe to the one who would prevent the Father’s children from coming near to Him.
Christ was a good critic. He criticized out of a deep sense of love and responsibility and a desire to guide the offender back to the right way.
What kind of critic are you?
Harnessing Chaos 