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“We live in a culture of criticism.”

A thought by Jon Tyson from his book, The Burden Is Light: Liberating Your Life from the Tyranny of Performance and Success (p. 133). The Crown Publishing Group. Kindle Edition. (Click on the book title to go to Amazon.com to buy the book.)

Oh, it is so easy to be critical, isn’t it?

Jon says, “The power dynamics of our world have changed so that customer reviews, personal opinions, tweets, and status updates have the power to determine a product’s success. Social media can shape a corporation’s brand in the marketplace or even ruin a human life. The Greek word translated ‘judge’ is related to the English words critic and critical. And this is what we have become. We used to value the expert opinions of those with credibility in a given field. Now we value our own opinions above all. We view ourselves as the definitive source on subjects as diverse as international politics, the performance of the head of the PTA, the haircut of a famous celebrity, and the exegetical faithfulness of the youth pastor at church. There is a place for criticism, and there is a need for cultural critics; but when we default to a posture of criticism, we subvert the grace of God and replace it with the demands of our own sovereign law.”

He goes on, “The danger of a critical spirit is that it creates a false power dynamic in our relationships. Judgment is based on the faulty assumption that we are in the right in every situation and that our opinion is called for and must be expressed. This is rarely true. The early church also wrestled with this tendency to be judgmental. It’s unique to our humanity, not to our era. Paul wrote to Christians in the city of Rome, urging them not to let a culture of judgment destroy the gospel of grace. The church in Rome was a mash-up of ethnicities and cultures that didn’t exist outside the church. All people tend to moralize based on their own culture and mistake their unique perspective for absolute truth and then judge others for their deviation from it. We make our perspective, rather than God’s Word, the gold standard.”

Later he says, “How many of the things we see in others, things that we rush to judge, are embedded in larger stories of heartache and pain, wounds, and frustration, of which we are oblivious? What made Jesus so compelling to lost and downtrodden souls is that he looked beyond the issues to see the people themselves. He could see the whole of their humanity and the arc of their redemption, and he helped them move toward healing through mercy… When we see the person, not the issue, we usher in the redemptive possibility that mercy unleashes… Judgment sees the issue. Mercy sees the person. This is how mercy triumphs over judgment.

Oh, if we would see the person as Christ sees them.  It really would make a difference in our critical spirit, wouldn’t it?

Yes, yes!

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