Hello Criticism

Nehemiah had a vision - to rebuild the city walls. Nothing was going to distract Nehemiah from accomplishing that which God had called him to do. Nehemiah had a vision of broken walls restored; a city re-energized, re-focused and re-committed; the weak and vulnerable becoming strong and prosperous; a lost city becoming a city of light and hope.

Nehemiah was in the fight of his life. The critics hurled insults and threats. The distractions mounted. One such distraction came from a king hell bent on destroying Nehemiah and stopping him dead in his tracks. The king's name was Sanballat.

Listen to what Nehemiah 6:5-7 says - [emphasis added for personal interpretation]

"Then Sanballat sent his servant to me in the same manner a fifth time with an open letter in his hand. In it was written, 'It is reported [rumored] among the nations, and Gashmu says, that you and the Jews are planning to rebel [threaten my position and power]; therefore you are rebuilding the wall [trying to set yourself apart]. And you are to be their king [you are merely seeking power], according to reports [rumors].'"

Rumors were flying. Sanballat was ready to stop any progress Nehemiah and the Jews were making because it threatened his own power. Actually, Sanballat wanted Nehemiah dead. Yet, instead of wasting his time on rumors and critics, Nehemiah threw his focus back on the One who called him to this great work to begin with. And he kept on building.

Nothing brings out criticism like a vision.

"If you are passionate about something that is yet to be, eventually someone will criticize you and question your motives. People will not understand the intensity of your focus. In our society, we are not accustomed to leaders passing up good opportunities for the sake of something that is yet to be. There is a general distrust of those who are trying to do anything new or innovative, especially if they claim to be doing it for a reason other than personal gain." - Visioneering, Andy Stanley

Leadership is painful. Often, a person with a vision is accused of doing the very opposite of what their vision is all about. In Nehemiah's case, he had walked away from a very influential position at the right hand of the king. Then, he refused to exploit his position among the people he was working with to rebuild the city walls. He refused all of the perks and benefits associated with his position among the people and still found himself accused of being power hungry.

Criticism can kill a vision. Many visions are laid to rest because the person with the vision is unable to remain steadfast during periods of intense criticism. Yet, criticism, in fact, is often a great way to verify whether or not your vision is a "God Vision" or not. If it is a "God Vision", one thing you can be assured; there will always be more questions than there are answers. God visions will attract criticism because they threaten the status-quo. God visions will stir up critics who want to keep you in your place, who want to maintain their own power and status. God visions are hard to follow. They require total dependence on the One from whom the vision came.

There is also another dynamic at work - one that can be seen clearly in the life of Sanballat. Not only will you be accused of the very thing you are trying not to do, you will probably be accused of whatever it is your accusers are guilty of.

In the case of Sanballat, he was the power-hungry one. The reason he was so disgusted by Nehemiah's progress was because his own power was being threatened. And he did what so many critics do - He assumed of Nehemiah what was true of himself.

"People with impure motives question the motives of those around them. It's called projection. Since their actions are laced with their own selfish ambitions, they assume everyone else's are as well. These folks will examine your zeal through their self-serving lenses and assume the worst. You can't convince them otherwise. There is no use trying. Again, pour out your frustration to the Father and keep working". - Visioneering, Andy Stanley

The best way to silence your critics is by completing your task, following through with your vision. Don't let anger and bitterness pull you off course. Don't let hurtful critics side track you. To them, say what Nehemiah said to the king who wanted nothing but to criticize, distract and lure him into a death trap -

"I am doing a great work and I cannot come down."

Put your hope and trust and faith in the One who gave you your vision in the first place. You will never be without critics. You will never be without challenges and set backs, but there's a way that runs straight and leads to the fulfillment of your vision, your purpose.

Trust in the Lord your God with all of your heart, your soul and your strength; and lean not on your own understanding, but acknowledge Him in all your ways, and He will make your path straight.

The Great Sin

Having spent the last few weeks in Haiti, I've had more time than normal to be still and meditate on God's Word as well as to devour a list of reading material that would have normally taken me a month to finish.

Reading C.S. Lewis' Mere Christianity was a breath of fresh air. Not only does he do a great job talking through the basic tenants of the Christian faith as if he himself were the greatest skeptic, he unleashes a fresh perspective on so many topics that have in recent years eluded the Christian Church.

One such topic that caught my attention was of "the great sin".

"There is one vice of which no man in the world is free; which every one in the world loathes when he sees it in someone else; and of which hardly any people ever imagine they are guilty themselves". - C.S Lewis

It is a vice that perhaps none of us would accuse ourselves of, while at the same time would show the slightest mercy when we see it in others. It is the vice of pride. It is vice of Satan himself. And it is crippling the American Church.

It is through pride that Satan fell from beloved angel to despised among all generations and cursed to the ends of the earth. It is pride that leads us to every other vice. In essence, it is pride, the self-serving part of man that continues to feed himself and look out solely for his own interest that makes room for sin.

The more pride we have in ourselves, the more we despise it in others.

"Pride gets no pleasure out of having something, only out of having more of it than the next man. Greed may drive men into competition if there is not enough to go around; but the proud man, even when he has got more than he can possibly want, will try to get still more just to assert his power." -C.S. Lewis

There is nothing pride loves more than power.

How is it then that people who are quite obviously eaten up with pride can say they believe in God and appear themselves to be very religious?

[The following is an excerpt from Mere Christianity]

"I am afraid it means they are worshiping and imaginary God. They theoretically admit themselves to be nothing in the presence of God, but are really all the time imagining how He approves of them and thinks them far better than ordinary people; that is, they pay a pennyworth of imaginary humility to Him and get out of it a pound's worth of pride towards their fellow-men. I supposed it was of those people Christ was thinking when He said that some would preach about Him and cast out devils in His name, only to be told at the end of the world that He had never known them. And any of us may at any moment be in this death-trap. Luckily, we have a test. Whenever we find that our religious life is making us feel that we are good - above all, that we are better than someone else - I think we may be sure that we are being acted on, not by God, but by the devil...

...Pride can often be used to beat down the simpler vices. Teachers, in fact, often appeal to a boy's pride, or, as they call it, his self-respect, to make him behave decently: many a man has overcome cowardice or lust or ill-temper, by learning to think that they are beneath his dignity - that is pride. The devil laughs."

It appears that many of us, as Christians, have replaced one vice for an even greater one. The danger is that, in the name of self-help and "living our best life now", we've elevated ourselves to a height at which the only possibility of viewing others is "downward". Perhaps we no longer care what people think of us because they are so far beneath us. We are in danger.

The moment we think that certain "sins" are beneath us, we have foolishly elevated our standing. The devil laughs, for he has cured a small fault by replacing it with an even bigger one.