Handling Critics

Or, how not to do what I did…

Matthew 22:15  Then the Pharisees met together to plot how to trap Jesus into saying something for which he could be arrested.

A few years ago I got some “fan mail” from a reader of my newspaper column. He was pretty ugly in his commentary about me and my writing, as well as a few other things. Greener’s Law says to never argue with someone who buys ink by the barrel, so I started writing a response. He took a shot at me in private, but I was going to embarrass him in print.

One of the things I said was, ”I will admit, my first reaction was laughter. I imagined some chubby guy sitting in his mom’s basement in tighty-whiteys, taking out his frustration with God, the church and the world in general by hammering out his post with his stubby Cheetos-stained fingers.”

It’s humorous. It’s also the wrong way to handle critics. When the religious leaders came after Jesus he could have called down angels to wipe them out. He could have argued with them, he could have loudly demanded an apology from them. Instead, he left the judging to God. And that’s how we should handle critics and people who are ugly to us. Romans 12:21 says, “Don’t let evil conquer you, but conquer evil by doing good.”

Love gets us further than hate in this life. So let’s do good, not worry about petty revenge. And if you’re the guy who wrote the comment that originally started this; sorry about the tightly-whites and Cheetos shot.

Today’s Readings:  2 Samuel 10; 1 Chronicles 20; Psalm 20; Matthew 22