Make your critics your coaches…

Last night I was listening to Mark Driscoll at church and he came to a part that was very challenging to me. Let be digress and say that recently I have been asking God how I can live out the gospel in my own life. I have enough knowledge on spiritual matters, but I have been recently challenged to live my life accordingly as opposed to just hearing the word, where have I heard that before?

Regardless Mark spoke about the myriad of bloggers who attack him and his church on a regular basis and he said the best thing he has ever done is admit sometimes critics are right.

He told the story of how Billy Graham handled his critics, it was to sit down with them and hear them out, take notes and pray to see if God was trying to tell him something through these people.

I looked at my wife and said “I do not have enough Jesus for that” and it shocked me. God has this tendency of answering the prayers I don’t want answered like “I would like to be more patient” or “I want to know how really live the gospel” The answers are much tougher than I expect.

I tend toward a defensive posture when someone critiques me even to the point of becoming aggressive but I need to realize that they may very well be right and it may be an opportunity for me to grow and change. I simply need to approach it with more humility, not one of my strongest virtues but God is still working on me.