One of the highlights of Catalyst for me last week was listening to Chuck Swindoll preach. I’ve listened to his sermons since I was in college. He shared with us the leadership lessons he’s learned over the decades of his ministry. One of his points which really stuck out with me was his thoughts about the opinions of others.
He essentially said,
“There will be people in your life who basically want to worship you. In their eyes you can do no wrong. They put you up on a pedestal and believe every word, every action, every thought is pure as the fallen snow.”
“On the other hand you will have your critics for whom you can do nothing right. Every word, action, and thought will be criticized with little thought to who you are as a person.”
He said the wise leader will not take either one of these groups serious. I don’t think he meant we shouldn’t still love them because I believe we should. I think he meant we shouldn’t allow them to shape and mold us. Their false worship and eager critical hearts will simply damage the work God is doing in you and through you.
Late last night someone sent me a link to a radio program that had aired earlier in the day. I listened to this guy spend two hours bashing me and taking one of my messages and going line by line tearing it apart. My first thought was…well, I can’t tell you my first thought. My second thought was, Who has this kind of time? And why would he go online and pick the one message he thought he could pick on the most? Why would someone who calls himself a Christian do this? How does this build up the Kingdom?
And then I thought about Swindoll’s words and I turned the radio show off, shut my computer, climbed into bed with my amazing wife and was reminded of how grateful I am for the things God is doing in my life.
Hear me now: Don’t waste your time listening to false praise or distorted criticism. The praise will go straight to your head and the criticism will go directly to your heart. Both will lead you astray and both will damage the work God is doing in you and through you.
Which is more likely to get you off course? Praise or criticism?
*Note: Please do not go on the guy’s blog above and say negative things. A reaction is exactly what he’s looking for and it only get’s him going more. At the end of the day he’s someone I’m called to love and extend grace to. While I clearly don’t do ministry in the way he does, we’re on the same team. Plus, he’s right. It really wasn’t my best message. 
