I’ve learned from my more responsible critics.īut, of course, there has been plenty that hurt more, and that I felt was less fair. Like I learned to step around a complex issue, or not to be so hasty with my words and talk off the top of my head, or not to chase a rabbit and get into huge trouble. And once it got out into the larger world where I could be critiqued for having said something imperfectly-maybe even in a way that I didn’t mean-some of those things I purely learned from. I knew the basics, but I wouldn’t always say them right. I think that all of us can serve, but I, very unintentionally, have had moments when I was out further than I had the depth of knowledge to support at that time. I think that there are people who God calls to seminary or to a master’s in theology of some kind. I was not academically trained, but I don’t think someone has to be. In other words, there have been moments in the past that I needed to have been more careful. This really must be said: As much as I don’t enjoy it, some of the criticism of me has been very valuable and very well earned. Well, I’ll just say this because it must be said, and this is not false humility. What have you learned through those experiences? Much of it public, and much of it … unmannerly … to put it mildly. If it’s true laughter-not sarcasm-it comes from an inner hope. Laughter is, like I’ve said before, an audible hope, I think. Now this all is the Lord’s, and he does with it what he wants.Īll this to say, yes, humor has an important place in our family. It’s the sign that you’ve been carrying a burden that you can now lay down. One or the other will satisfy the same thing-the release of a whole lot of pressure. It’s not always slick, and it’s not always good, but we’ve given those precious people everything we had in us and on the way home, I always know I’m either going to cry or I’m going to laugh. We’ve given away everything we had in us. We drag our empty shells to the airplane, get on and come home. On my way home from an event, after I have taught hard (I mean hard ), we don’t take any personal energy back to the airport. It becomes so ridiculous that all we can do is laugh. But every now and then, something in the middle of it all will be absurd enough that it’s just hilarious, and for whatever reason, that’s how we process it. Criticism really hurts, I wish I could say that it didn’t. Often, we’ve been together when something absurd is happening, maybe even during a time of public criticism.
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