Archive for June, 2010

I actually sent a RT (retweet) Monday night of this Teddy Roosevelt quote that Perry Noble shared Monday on his blog that was still resonating in my heart this morning so I thought that I would share it with a larger group of you:

“It is not the critic who counts, not the one who points out how the strong man stumbled or how the doer of deeds might have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena. Whose face is marred with sweat and dust and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes short again and again and again, who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions and spends himself in a worthy cause. Who, if he wins, knows the triumph of high achievement, and who, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory or defeat.” Teddy Roosevelt

Before I was a pastor I was a musician in a band that wrote and played our own music for the purpose of getting a record deal. Whenever we would produce a new recording we would send it to various magazines and outlets for the purpose of review. Good reviews meant more gigs in new places, more music sales and the possibility of bringing new fans to those shows. During that time I learned something: many critics aren't even musicians. These people who were going to listen to and give their opinion on our music to others were not even making music of their own. Rather, they sat around and talked about other people's music, forming people's opinions on that music even though they had no experience of creating music of their own.

That whole premise reminds me that it's pretty easy to sit back and point out how you would do something – it's quite another thing to lay it all on the line and do it. For me, one of the hardest things in the world is to consistently shut out the noise long enough to hear what you believe God to be saying to you through his word and prayer. In the end only you will stand before Him to answer to what you've done and accomplished – I pray that He won't disappointedly ask me why I didn't do what He was instructing me to do (no matter how crazy it seemed to others AND to me). Right now, I pray the same thing for you.

Most of us probably fall into 1 of 2 categories: critic or criticized. Put me on the the side of those creating and doing something; we'll leave the analysis of how well we're doing to those who would rather talk than do.