Hello, How Are You? 10/11/98
Numbers 6: 23 – 26
Page 208 Come Alive Bible
Jesus Christ gathered with His bewildered followers on the eve of His execution for His last time with them. Confusion and fear held them in a firm grip as He spoke. Much of what He said is contained in John 14 – 17. In that hostile environment His talk was punctuated with such words as “joy” and “peace.” He spoke often in various settings of His followers as being “blessed.” That is us.
Yet, much of our conduct and conversation gives the impression we have little joy, peace, and experience few blessings. Listen the next time you speak to someone with such a simple greeting as, “Hello, how are you?”
Two common negative responses are often heard. One: “So far, so good.” This sounds like the response of a person on safari in a predator infested jungle. Things have been going pretty good so far but at any minute I expect an attack resulting in catastrophe.
Further translated, “God has taken care of me so far, but at any minute I expect His provision and protection to expire.
A second even more negative response is, “Tired!”
It is 9:00 AM and a healthy individual says, “I am tired.” Causes you that have a “I can’t wait until 3:00 PM” attitude to cycle back and see just how much more tired this person is.
In the Old Testament era followers of Jehovah were taught a special prayer which gave cause for optimism. It is often called the equivalent of the Lord’s Prayer in the Old Testament. It is called the Aaronic Benediction.
“The LORD bless you and keep you; The LORD make His face shine upon you, And be gracious to you; The LORD lift up His countenance upon you, And give you peace” (Numbers 6: 24 – 26).
God taught us this prayer. Blessing is His idea. A simple response to the greeting, “Hello, how are you?” should well be, “Blessed.”
The prayer in faith expects God to draw near and enfold one in His grace. To pray it is to live expectant of blessings not of dread as expressed in “So far, so good.”
The praying of this prayer is a way of saying, “Yes, Amen!” to God’s promises.
“The Lord bless you and keep you” speaks of present blessings and future care by the Lord. He will “keep you.”
He will “make His face to shine upon you.” On Mount Sinai the Lord in His shining brilliance revealed Himself to Moses and gave to Him the Ten Commandments. It was revelation of His will. This expression, “Make His face to shine upon you” refers to Him revealing His will.
“The Lord lift up His countenance upon you” is a term expressive of a smile. May God find such pleasure in you as to smile and reward you with peace.
The prayer speaks of blessing, presence, and the smile of God. It is not a persons idea it is God’s idea. It is what He wants for you.
Now back to the response to the innocent greeting, “Hello, how are you?” Why in light of the provisions of this prayer do so many people respond “Tired?”
This question concerns the medical community as well as the faith community. Dr. Richard Clark Cabbot of the Mayo Clinic led a team that studied the issue of “How to help people overcome that tired feeling.”
Parenthetically, there are times when we are all legitimately tired. It is a legitimate wonderful condition if the fatigue is the result of energy and effort well spent.
Vince Lombardy, the highly successful former coach of the Green Bay Packers, said, “Happiness is to be lying flat on your back exhausted from an effort to achieve victory.” That is a celebration of honest and honorable fatigue.
However, the doctors of Mayo Clinic in their study were concerned with the chronically tired persons who has no physiological reason for always being tired. They concluded four things to help overcome this negative state of being. They are: WORK, PLAY, LOVE, AND WORSHIP.
The Clinic was so impressed they had a logo designed using a cross with four equal arms each of which represented one of the four: WORK, PLAY, LOVE, AND WORSHIP.
Consider them as daily antidote to having that “tired feeling.” It is a prescription from a highly respected medical source.
I. WORK
The way in which it should be done is found in Colossians 3: 23: “And whatever you do, do it heartily, as to the Lord and not to men.”
Put yourself into your work as though creating a work of art to be viewed by the Lord Himself. Often a worker finds himself under the supervision of a boss that just can’t be pleased regardless of the effort and excellence. This verse relieves the pressure. If you do what you do to an audience of one, that one being the Lord, and He approves and others don’t you don’t get depressed. If you do what you do to the same audience of one, the Lord, and He approves and others applaud you don’t take off on an ego flight. You didn’t do it for them you did it for Him.
This I refer to as THE LAW OF EMOTIONAL EQUILIBRIUM. It helps you keep your balance.
An Italian Duke was walking through his formal rose garden when he came upon a young gardener cutting roses and placing them in a uniquely beautiful carved wooden box. “What are you doing?” he inquired, not knowing the box had been hand carved by the young gardener. “I am pruning the roses and placing them in this chest.” “Does such a menial task demand such craftsmanship,” asked the duke. “No, sir,” came the reply, “but my nature does.”
“What is your name?” the duke demanded, “you shall be flogged for such impudence.”
“My name sir, is Michelangelo.”
It is little wonder that having a nature demanding such excellence in little things resulted in a life of mastery in major things. He was doing that menial carving as unto the Lord and found great pleasure in it.
II. PLAY
Here comes a part you got to like —– PLAY.
Unplug, recreate, and enjoy amusement. Allow yourself to relax and laugh.
Stress, prolonged fatigue, negative emotions, and a pessimistic outlook flood the body with toxins. They release chemical toxins within your body. Don’t make your body a toxic waste dump by depriving it of play.
Health is no laughing matter but it does help if you laugh.
The body is under a biochemical onslaught. Mounting research makes it clear that one’s attitude and emotional state are impressively vital to the preservation of health and recovery from illness.
“Exhibit A” is a stress-sensitized person. Such a ones response to everyday stress has the same flush of biochemical release as during a major threat. This biochemical rush suppresses the immune system to various infections and diseases, according to psychological research. Hormones released by stress promote ulcers, asthma, rheumatoid arthritis, heart disease, and strokes.
Conversely, a positive, optimistic, jovial spirit releases health inducing pain killers and a “feel good” mood. These chemicals known as endorphins and enkephlins when released into the body by the brain are a morphine-like substance that act as a good natural anesthesia and relaxant. A person senses his or her highest level of well-being when they are at work. PLAY! For your health sake play.
If God smiles, and our text says He does, so should we. The Bible says, “[God] will yet fill your mouth with laughter and your lips with shouts of joy” (Job 8: 21).
That means you may yet experience a growth spirt in your funny bone.
Solomon, the wisest of the kings, wrote there is a “time to laugh” (Ecc. 3: 4). In praise of the Lord the Psalmist wrote, “Our mouths were filled with laughter, our tongues with songs of joy” (Psalm 126: 2).
Infect people around you with “cheer-germs.” Those who catch the disease will find their load lighter and their Christianity brighter.
III. LOVE
Try giving yourself away. A lady when asked what she had been doing said, “I’ve been trying to get something for my husband.” Came the reply, “Did you have any offers?”
If you try loving and giving yourself away there will be lots of offers.
A short version of Jesus’ summation of the law is simply, “You shall love…” He went on to say, “You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind'” (Matthew 22:37).
Don’t look upon God with suspicion. Release yourself to love Him.
Additionally He instructed us to love our neighbor as our self.
Studies show babies are not born knowing how to love, but with the capacity to receive and experience love. They learn to love from how their parents love them. Perhaps you missed it. Maybe bitter circumstances have made it difficult to love others. It is at this point God, the Father, steps in to show us love. We then learn how to love from the Father. He has demonstrated His love for us. He has shown us the true meaning of love by loving us.
We are slow learners. Here it is right in the Book: “We love because God first loved us” (I John 4: 19).
John follows this up by alerting us to our opportunity to show God’s love for others by the quality of our love: “For he who does not love his brother which he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen” (I John 4:20).
Babies learn to love by receiving the love of their parents. We learn the highest law of love by experiencing the love of the Lord Jesus.
We put into practice our love by doing for others what God has done for us. We learn to accept people with all of their faults and failures just as God accepted us.
If you dare to love people you are going to be hurt. If you don’t you are going to be sick. Hadn’t you rather be hurt than sick?
Not long ago, a magazine article about Roseto, an Italian- immigrant village in eastern Pennsylvania that became famous for its residents’ low levels of heart disease was researched. Despite hard lives and high-fat diets that included plenty of lard (because olive oil was too expensive to import), the heart- attack rate among Rosetans was less than half the U.S. average. Well, that was then. In the past three decades, the town’s heart disease rate has risen to approach that of any other place in over stressed America. What made the difference? Some doctors believe Roseto actually lost its heart. Earlier in the century, Rosetans lived with as many as four generations of family crowded into a single home. Residents worked together, socialized together, and were extremely dependent on one another. Then came your basic American prosperity: better-paying jobs, big homes on the outskirts of town, and television. According to researcher Stewart Wolf, M.D., there was a “conspicuous social change from family-centered attitudes toward more self-centered, materialistic concerns.” As people grew apart, they also developed more heart disease. Is it possible to find other ways of achieving the close community and personal intimacy the Rosetans had long ago? According to Dr. Dean Ornish, it isn’t just possible, it’s vital. In “Love & Survival,” Ornish issues a powerful call for doctors and everybody else to start considering love, intimacy, and emotional and spiritual growth to be as important as any high-tech medicine in preventing and treating physical illness. American society is facing an epidemic of “emotional and spiritual heart disease,” Ornish says, that is every bit as harmful to our bodies as cholesterol and other risk factors.
In my files I found a poem by Helen Steiner
Rice penned in my mother’s hand writing.
Where there is love the heart is light,
Where there is love the day is bright.
Where there is love there is a song
To help when things are going wrong.
Where there is love, there is a smile
To make things seem more worthwhile.
Where there is love, there’s a quiet peace,
A quiet place where turmoils cease.
Love changes darkness into light
And makes the heart take ‘wingless flight.’
Blessed are they who walk in love,
They also walk with God above.
And when man walks with God again
There shall be peace on earth for men.
IV. WORSHIP
This is the fourth necessity for avoiding “that tired feeling” according to the research by Mayo Clinic doctors.
Two ancient factors distract us from worship:
One is TRIVIALIZATION. We, like the ancient Gnostics, have made God in our image and refer to Him as the “Old Man,” or the “Man Upstairs,” or even the “Big Guy.”
The name Gnostic means “one who knows all.” That bunch of know it alls from the first century talked about God. They expressed their opinions regarding Him. They didn’t talk to Him or worship Him. They talked to each other a lot about God but they didn’t talk to Him.
The second is TRIBULATION. Roman persecution in the first century distracted the people from worship. It was not popular to be a follower of the crucified Christ. It was not lawful to be a Christian. This caused economic discrimination, social ostracism, imprisonment, and martyrdom.
John, the beloved disciple of Christ, encountered the Gnostic philosophy that trivialized God and personally experienced tribulation. His tribulation resulted in him being imprisoned on the Island of Patmos. There, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, he worshiped and penned the Revelation. Therein he teaches us of worship and to worship.
The Book of the Revelation begins, “I was in the spirit on the Lord’s Day…” (Rev. 1:10).
On the last page of the Bible, after momentary distraction by angels, he refocuses on the issue and exhorts us “Worship God” (Rev. 22: 9).
By the time our study comes to the final entry in the library of 66 books called the Holy Bible, our minds are bursting with knowledge and our hearts burning with desire.
Why then aren’t things better in society and particularly in the Christian community? Could it be that we have become modern Gnostics talking much about God and little to Him. Motivated to work for Him but failing to worship Him. Perhaps we have even read the revelation searching for knowledge regarding the lamp stands, seals, bowls, and beast without getting the central message. That is “worship God.”
Perhaps we even come to our main hour of worship each Sunday bleached out emotionally and depleted physically by the activities of Saturday. Perhaps we have even adopted the world’s calendar and now schedule things on the Lord’s day that interfere with worship. Are some paying tribute to persons on the Lord’s Day when they should be giving it to worship? That is an unpopular thing to say, but if a representative of the Lord doesn’t say it the trend worsens.
A clarion call to worship and an unequaled example is found in the book of the Revelation.
The only way we can stay alert to the reality of God in Christ ruling and saving is in the act of worship.
The only way we can be trusted to say anything about God that is close to true, to do anything for God that is halfway right, is by repeated singing, praying, listening, and believing with the elders around the throne, where the scroll is unsealed and the gospel read out clear and strong in worship.
If we absent ourselves from worship or treat it as marginal on our social calendar we become dominated by the world rather than directed by worship.
Worship is the primary means we are give to orientate ourselves to God’s will. Therein and thereby we are energized. When we truly worship the Living God then – – – –
“The LORD bless you and keep you; [His protection is ours.]
The LORD make His face shine upon you, And be gracious to you; [His provisions are ours.]
The LORD lift up His countenance upon you, And give you peace” [His peace is ours.] (Numbers 6: 24 – 26).
Hello, how are you? BLESSED!
Who Is Jesus?
What is the greatest miracle of all time?
Some might say it was the creation of the universe and indeed that is a worthy candidate for the title “The Greatest Miracle of All Time.” To make something out of nothing is a concept beyond comprehension. There are no physiological laws to explain it.
However, that isn’t the greatest miracle of all time. That title belongs to the God of all creation transforming Himself into a homo sapien. How could all that He is become as little as we are?
“For it pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness should dwell.” (Colossians 1: 19)
“For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily.” (Colossians 2: 9) The Godhead is a reference to all that constitutes the attributes of God, such as:
God is infinite. Unlike us, God has no limits or boundaries. That’s Jesus.
God is self-existent. Unlike everything else He had no beginning.
God is eternal. He is not bound by the dimension of time.
God is self-sufficient. All creation relies on God for existence, but He has no need for anything.
“He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist.” (Colossians 1: 15 – 17)
Jesus, “who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God.” (Philippians 2: 6) There are two parts to this. The first part, “being in the form of God,” refers to the nature of the Lord Jesus before His incarnation. The second part, “thought it not robbery to be equal with God,” deals primarily with the attitude that the Lord had when He came in the flesh.
It is said of Jesus He “emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore, God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” (Philippians 2: 7 – 11 EST)
By emptying Himself is meant He never used His supernatural nature for Himself. However, retaining it He was able to perform miracles for others.
Whose footprints were those in the Judean sands? Jesus.
Whose shadow was that on the streets of Jerusalem? Jesus.
Whose red blood was shed on Calvary? Jesus.
Who is that who promised to meet all your needs? Immanuel, God with us.
That is the greatest miracle of all time.
In the Beginning God…
“For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist.” Colossians 1: 16 – 17
Creator! That title is seen to be all the more profound when considering this sampling of what was created.
Our sun has a mass 333,000 times that of earth. Its volume is about 1,300,00 times that of earth. To produce its light it burns 4.2 tons of its substance per second. Every second it throws off more energy than humanity has used in all of history. Its core temperature is 25 million degrees Fahrenheit. It has been calculated that a pinhead size of its matter would emit such heat it would kill a person at a distance of 100 miles.
Jupiter is 1,300 times the size of earth. It is larger than all other members of the solar system combined. It travels at an equatorial speed of 30,000 miles per hour.
Then there is the big boy with the unusual name of Beatle Juice (Betelgeuse). It has a diameter of 250 million miles. That is greater than the earth’s orbit.
Then consider the other extreme in size, Mercury. It consists of six trillion atoms per ounce.
Little wonder that the writer of Colossians in speaking of creation refers to things “visible and invisible.” That reference to atoms as being invisible was written long before atoms were even know.
In light of that the following deserves a little fanfare.
“When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, The moon and the stars, which You have ordained,
What is man that You are mindful of him, And the son of man that You visit him? For You have made him a little lower than the angels, And You have crowned him with glory and honor.
You have made him to have dominion over the works of Your hands;
You have put all things under his feet, All sheep and oxen—Even the beasts of the field, the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea that pass through the paths of the seas.
O Lord, our Lord, How excellent is Your name in all the earth!” (Psalm 8: 3 – 9)
The cherry on top: “God so loved the world that whosoever believes in Him might be saved.” What an awesome God.
Thomas, the Twin
“Then Thomas, who is called the Twin, said to his fellow disciples,
‘Let us also go, that we may die with Him'” (John 11:16).
Jesus Christ called Thomas to follow Him. Because of misunderstanding of him he has been stereotyped with a title second only to Judas Iscariot with negative connotations. He is inappropriately known as Doubting Thomas. A closer look will reveal Him to be Devoted Thomas.
His name appears in many translations as Thomas Didymus. The name Didymus is Greek for Twin. In Didymus can be heard the English word Ditto, meaning the same. It isn’t known who his twin was, whether male or female.
Thomas was a pragmatist. He wanted empirical evidence. He was a show me type person. All of his comments recorded in Scripture occurred in the last week of Christ’s life. His questions were not so much born of doubt as to give occasion for insight. Questioning isn’t bad. Doubting is. He was legitimately inquisitive.
Some persons harbor their tired old doubts and pose them as questions anywhere they are reasonably sure they can’t get an answer. They hope by their seemingly unanswerable questions to appear intellectual. Revealed ignorance is a poor way to try to appear to be smart. Thomas asked his questions where he could get answers. The answers were met with his response of devotion.
In His threefold admonition Christ said, “Ask and it shall be revealed to you.” Thomas’ questions got wonderful answers.
I. HE RELATED WORTHILY
Jesus was encamped along the Jordan when news reached Him that His dear friend Lazarus had died. In an act of seemingly indifference Jesus waited two days before responding to the news. In that delay was wisdom. There was a misconception regarding death in that era. It was believed that the spirit stayed in the body for three days after death before departing. Jesus knowing what He was going to do regarding the death of Lazarus wanted to wait until this period had passed before bringing Lazarus back to life so this old superstition could not be credited.
Bethany, Lazarus’ home town, was only about two miles from Jerusalem. The apostles knew what the mood of the religious leaders of Jerusalem was regarding Christ. They knew His life would be in jeopardy if He went to Jerusalem. Not knowing His reason for delaying going they doubtless were relieved by the fact of His delay.
When Jesus said, “Let us go to Judea again,” the disciples responded: “Rabbi, lately the Jews sought to stone You, and are You going there again?” (John 11:8).
Jesus knew His hour had come. His death was immanent. The apostles knew this open act of defiance would incur the wrath of the ruling religious Jews. Nevertheless, Thomas responded: “Let us go that we may die with Him” (John 11: 16).
That was a statement revealing great devotion. There was no wavering or equivocation in that self-sacrificing statement. Unfortunately most readers over look it and remember only a later misunderstood statement by Thomas.
Thomas fought with his fears and by faith won.
He had been there earlier in a teaching session and heard Christ say: “For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it” (Matthew 16:25).
Years lapsed and in recent times missionary Jim Elliot who was martyred by Auqua Indians in South America made a comparable statement: “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.” Thomas was willing to give all and gain all.
Are we willing to pay the price for following Christ?
II. HE REASONED WISELY
On the eve preceding His execution Jesus gathered in an upper room with His apostles and taught them: “Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also. And where I go you know, and the way you know. Thomas said to Him, ‘Lord, we do not know where You are going, and how can we know the way?'” (John 14: 1 – 5).
Thomas wanted to know “where” and “how.” Jesus answered He was the “way.”
A missionary in Africa contracted with a native guide to lead him to a certain remote village. Armed only with his machete the guide lead the way. They traveled through tall brush and thick jungle. During one of their rest stops the missionary commented, “There is not path. How do you know the way?” The native answered, “I am the way. I know where to go. Follow me.”
Jesus is personally the way. If we follow Him we get where we should be.
III. HE RESPONDED WORSHIPFULLY
After Christ’s resurrection the apostles were gathered in an upper room. For whatever reason Thomas wasn’t there. Let’s let John relate what happened.
“Now Thomas, called the Twin, one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. The other disciples therefore said to him, ‘We have seen the Lord.’ So he said to them, ‘Unless I see in His hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe.’ And after eight days His disciples were again inside, and Thomas with them. Jesus came, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst, and said, ‘Peace to you!’ Then He said to Thomas, ‘Reach your finger here, and look at My hands; and reach your hand here, and put it into My side. Do not be unbelieving, but believing. And Thomas answered and said to Him, ‘My Lord and my God!’ Jesus said to him, ‘Thomas, because you have seen Me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed'” (John 20: 24 – 29).
Thomas had such faith in Christ he had learned to doubt his doubts. We must do the same.
Thomas was our proxy in questioning in order that we might not have reason to doubt. He questioned the word of his fellow apostles but he did not doubt the Lord Himself.
We need to employ the technique used by Thomas to deal with doubts. He went where there were people of faith; where the unseen Lord was likely to make Himself known. We need to seek such environments also.
In response to Christ’s invitation to touch His wounds Thomas responds: “My Lord, and my God!” The sullen skeptic glows with shining faith. There is no indication he touched the wounds of Christ, but his faith embraced the truth shown.
Jesus then included us in His response. “Jesus said to him, ‘Thomas, because you have seen Me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed'” (John 20:29).
We are challenged to walk by faith not by sight.
Everything we say we know and believe, everything, we first accepted by faith. 2 X 2 = 4. We believe by faith. We accepted that long before we could prove it. It is a faith principle. We live by faith. It is just a matter of what the object of that faith is. Let it be Jesus. We not only receive Him by faith but those who reject Him reject Him by faith.
IV. HE REPORTED WILLINGLY
Immediately after His resurrection Jesus gave instruction to the witnessing women to tell the apostles He was going to Galilee. Immediately they went to Galilee. They wanted to be where He was. This was in effect reporting for duty. This warm interchange was a prelude to the last encounter the apostles would have with the resurrected Christ.
On the Mount of Olives as Christ was departing He commissioned His church: “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age” (Matthew 28: 19 – 20).
Thomas took Him at His word. Secular records reveal Thomas went east establishing the Assyrian Church, the Nestorian Church and others. He is considered the founder of the Church in India. There still exists the church known as “The Christians of St. Thomas,” said to have been established by him in 49 AD.
He is said to have suffered much persecution and eventual martyrdom in India. While praying soldiers of King Mizdi allegedly thrust a lance through him.
In giving his all he gained everything.
Don’t Give Up – Part Three
Let this profound thought ruminate mentally.
All that the Father was to the Son —
the Son wants to be to you.
Once you trust the Son
as the Son trusted the Father, then
He becomes to you what the Father was to Him.
Once this happens then the believer has an internal, eternal supply of extraordinary strength.
Everyone faces three foreboding opposing giants that must be confronted.
First, is insecurity. Feeling our own personal limits we tend to think so does everyone else. Unchecked it grows to the point we feel we have a sign hung around our neck listing our liabilities. In reality nobody knows your liabilities like you.
Strange as it may seem they don’t care. Being preoccupied with your liabilities you put greater limitations on yourself. Break the bonds of your limitations. Remember, “… God has not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and love, and a sound mind.” (II Timothy 1: 7)
Competition is the second giant confronted. Expect competition. Let it motivate you to be and become your very best. Don’t let your competition set your standards. Be the genuine you, the one and only you. Don’t be a cheap blurred copy of someone else.
Disapproval is Goliath, the foremost giant. No one likes it, everyone gets it sooner or later. Most often sooner than later. Be candid, if you deserve it learn from it. If you don’t deserve it, learn to love more because of it. Don’t let the fear of it freeze you into inactivity. If you fear to try you have because of the fear of failure you have cast yourself into an inoperative role.
Understood and properly responded to, it can be one of the best things to happen to you.
An older administrator said to a younger staff member he didn’t know a thing about administration and if he didn’t learn he wasn’t going to make it. Years later he related how he went back to his office, pounded the desk, and said, “That man, that man …. was right.”
He related this in his office. Turning to the bookshelves behind him he said these are books on administration. He had grown to be known as the dean of his profession …. and a very good one. He was smart enough to learn from criticism.
Learn to never let criticism defeat you. Let it nudge you to better performance. “Commit your works to the Lord, And your thoughts will be established.” (Proverbs 16:3)