Not What You Want to Hear
Mark 12:6,7 “The man had only one person left to send to the farmers. It was his son. He loved his son, but he decided to send him. He said, ‘The farmers will respect my son.’ “But the farmers said to each other, ‘This is the owner’s son, and this vineyard will be his. If we kill him, it will be ours.’ So they took the son, threw him out of the vineyard, and killed him.
Criticism is never pleasant. It touches a raw nerve. It smarts. Sure, I know I’m not perfect, but I don’t want to hear others. Yet constructive criticism helps you grow, right?
As part of a leadership course I’m involved in, I recently completed what’s called a “360-degree review” where superiors, peers and direct reports all had to complete a long questionnaire about me. The software then crunched their answers and gave me a 30-page report.
Now, there was a lot of positive reinforcement in there, but I’m not perfect so there were one or two things that smarted. Now, what do you do with that? Well, you either reject it (as many do) or you act on it, which is what I’m trying to do.
Jesus told a whole parable of how Israel rejected the many prophets God had sent them. The false prophets told the people what they wanted to hear and the people loved them. The true prophets told the people what they needed to hear … and they stoned them. So …
Mark 12:6,7 “The man had only one person left to send to the farmers. It was his son. He loved his son, but he decided to send him. He said, ‘The farmers will respect my son.’ “But the farmers said to each other, ‘This is the owner’s son, and this vineyard will be his. If we kill him, it will be ours.’ So they took the son, threw him out of the vineyard, and killed him.
Jesus doesn’t always tell you what you want to hear – that’s why they killed Him. Listen to Him anyway. Act on what He tells you anyway.
That’s God’s Word. Fresh … for you … today.
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