How to Handle Criticism

Pastor J.D. Greear reports again on something he learned from Mark Driscoll:

Mark said something to me that I've never quite heard put the way he put it. He referred to a number of mentors in his life who had turned on him or disappointed him. He said that he used to be devastated when it happened, feeling like a significant part of his own ministry was crashing. He said that now, however, he looks at mentors as people who put "building bricks" into his life. He's gotten many such bricks from many different people over the years. Some of those people have turned on him since, but he is still eternally grateful to them for the bricks they laid into his life. It made me realize that JESUS is the only mentor and master builder who never disappoints, and HE uses people in our lives who will sometimes fail us. But the valuable things we got from them were really from Him, so we don't have to despair when they fail us.

Some of Mark's best bricks, he said, have come from his critics. They threw their brick at him, and after recovering from the initial sting of it, he picked the brick up and incorporated it into his wall.

Pretty helpful analogy, I think.

At any rate, hope you've enjoyed these few posts about my interaction with Driscoll. I'm grateful for him as a pastor, leader and friend. I believe my own ministry is much richer now for his in my life.