Sunday, June 9, 2019

6-9-2019 Critique of the Critiquers



I was at an Authors Event, where various writers, including me, sat on panels to answer audience questions regarding our craft. There was a woman, also a writer in the room who raised her hand when we discussed the concept of Christian content.

“Do Christians ever write books of criticism on Christianity?” was her question.

The tenor of the inquiry suggested she was not a follower of you, Messiah, and that perhaps she had an axe to grind. Regardless, I appreciated both her courage to ask and wondered at the origins of the query. The panel encouraged that yes, Christian writers throughout history have and still do hold up the harsh light of opinion upon the church. For good reason too―we do not often enough follow your perfect example in our daily walk. There are countless commentaries on faith serving to point us toward honest reflection and correction, but do we countlessly seek agreement as suggested by chapters and verses in the book we are so apt to criticize. Thank you again for grace in the struggle of our minds, Jesus, but I pray toward more defense of the complete work, rather than division.

And under the guidance of that hunger, I wanted to reach out to the searching soul who was brave enough to offer the question on her heart to the room we shared. I perceived that the immediate answers our panel had offered were not quite satisfactory to her wondering. So, after the discussion, I approached her and learned that indeed she had had a negative experience in her formative years with some proclaimed Christian group. Whether by their instruction to her, or by her perception, she felt judged; not by your Word, but by her peers.

I was saddened on reflection. First, because it didn’t need to be that way; their choices and hers led to a parting instead of an invitation to learn and grow together. Lord, I totally get the “resistance factor”, wanting my ways as they are now, to be your ways. That’s where you met me and changed me. But at some point I had to become something I hadn’t considered attractive; I had to become submissive to another’s…your thoughts, your instruction which was not in sync with my thoughts and direction.

At that turning point, I started realizing I was the “issue”, not your plan. Now, I was observing a young woman who, like me did not seem to understand the very essence of your conviction on us. We are by nature critiquers. The tricky road being of course that the world (as evidenced by this woman’s position) seems to expect me to criticize you when in fact it is me and all of us in need of correction. But that means we all have to join together, standing before the mirror of your measuring―a very uncomfortable place to be…at least initially.

Yet, there is help to be had in the effort to shift direction. On this day in that room, you stepped in, Spirit. While I was later talking one-on-one with the questioner, another man walked up to us and introduced himself as a recent joiner of the faith. His amazing confession? “It took me until I was 60 plus years old to realize I was the one getting in the way of my belief in a loving Savior.”

Wow. He went on to explain that he was an engineer who recently visited a congregation with his son. The pastor presented a position diametrically opposed to this man’s belief, so he came back to confront and work out the disagreement (oh, this sounds so familiar, Lord). In that conflict the man discovered Truth; not his, not the pastor’s, but yours, Teacher) and in that moment, the new man was born.

Any additional words I might have offered to underscore his witness would have been pointless. He had just reduced commentary to a simple equation already clearly offered in the writings of your servant, James:

But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will stir within you and lift you up.

I still pray for the woman’s struggle, Lord, as I pray for my own ongoing resistance to be wiped clean. AS my new found friend in the faith beautifully portrayed, it is not as simple as asking you to improve me, but is more my willingness in humility to be improved. Let that be the condition we all seek, in your name, Jesus, perfecter of our faith.

Thank you, Lord, again, for teaching and loving your people toward a closer walk with you.

―It is so.

Mark C.



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