Listen to advice and accept instruction,
that you may gain wisdom in the future.
Many are the plans in the mind of a man,
but it is the purpose of the LORD that will stand.
(Proverbs 19:20-21 ESV)
I can’t think of many words that have been more unhelpful to our cultural development than “hater”. It’s become the convenient license people uses to ignore critique, wisdom and challenge from anyone and everyone that doesn’t sprinkle fairy dust on their dream or massage their ego. Stop it already.
If you have a dream and/or talent that you want to pursue, the best thing you can do for yourself is to surround yourself with Godly people who aren’t afraid to challenge the passion or you. If it’s a God given dream then testing it will yield Godly perseverance and increased faith. If you don’t test it, you’ll be so fragile and delicate that any time someone boos you your earth will be shattered and you’ll be shouting down “haters” left and right on twitter. That’s a good sign that your passion has been idolized and it’s a fruitless dream instead of a fruitful calling.
Granted there are jerks, who are complete strangers that will share their unsolicited opinion. Be a grown up and let that bounce off ya, don’t add their name to a list of haters and fuel bitterness.
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I wrote about this a few days ago. I think the difference is motivation. The church at large sometimes suffers from a lack of critical thinking. But the aim should always be to build up. Some self-appointed individuals feel it necessary to get up each morning and look for trouble; look for places where they can stir the pot. The differences lie in things like how it is said, what the goal is, and the track record of the critic. I think many of the ‘critics’ simply failed in ministry themselves and are responding out of bitterness or envy.
Good points Paul. Anything out of bitterness or envy is not going to be profitable. I think what people need to be careful of is viewing *everyone* who challenges them through the lens of critic/hater. A good mentor will challenge you and the best critics and mentors will be those that failed, they can teach you a lot.
Paul’s depth of teaching is unparalleled in the scriptures, yet he admits to incredible failure and being the “chief of sinners”. So as you correctly stated the posture of teaching/challenge/correction is important, much more important than whether that person has failed or succeeded.
I like Prov. 27:6 — Faithful are the wounds of a friend.