Looking for a reason

I love it when the Olympics roll around because I get to see so many different athletes from all over the world competing in sporting events that normally aren't on my radar. These sports could be on television on a regular basis throughout the year and I probably wouldn't watch them, but when gymnastics or curling or track and field or downhill skiing comes on during the Olympics, I find myself glued to the tube. 

Since I am far from being an expert on these sports, I rely on the commentators to explain lots of the nuances and rules of the games so that I can understand what's going in. To my chagrin, it never fails that there is always that one commentator who sees the need to over analyze each contestant in every event to the point that it makes me nauseous. For instance, I can watch a gymnastics routine that blows my mind yet all I hear is how the gymnast over-rotated, didn't stick the landing, or failed to fully extend. Really? He saw all of that in a simple 10 second routine? That might be something crucial to the judges in the stands who are responsible for such minutia, but to the average guy on the couch I don't want to hear all that negativity. Bunch of haters! How about showing some props to these athletes - many whose sports aren't well funded - who sacrifice year-round so that they can perform on the world's biggest stage?

It seems so easy to be critical of others and expose their flaws instead of encouraging them in an effort to build them up. A coach should do his best to teach and instruct his players, but if all he ever does is scream at and berate them then there's a good chance his players won't perform to their best and the parents won't let their kids play for him again (I sure wouldn't). I've heard of teachers who are overly critical of their students in the classroom, only to have it result in falling grades and poor self-esteem. And then there are those Christians who feel as if it is their spiritual duty to talk down and even denigrate other believers for how they aren't living up to what their picture of Christianity should be.

Jesus dealt with this quite a lot in His ministry here on earth. The Jewish leaders of His day were really into tradition and opinions - much like religious people today. The Sabbath day (Saturday) to them was the holiest day of the week and they were right in wanting to treat it as a day of worship and rest because that's exactly what God said it was in Exodus 20:8-11. But they took that to an extreme, spending their time on Sabbath days looking for those who were violating their laws so that they could bring the hammer down on them. Instead of using the Sabbath for worship and rest, these hypocrites were working hard to bust the chops of those they thought weren't fitting into their religious mode.

Jesus wasn't going to have any of that. In Luke 6:1-11 we are given two examples of how Jesus dealt with this very issue about what should and shouldn't be done on the Sabbath. In the first instance, He defended His disciples right to rub grain in their hands so that they could have something to eat and in the second example Jesus healed a man's paralyzed hand on the Sabbath despite the protests and evil glares of the religious elite. Couldn't these Jewish leaders rejoice because a man was healed? Instead, verse 7 instructively tells us that they were watching Jesus intently "so that they could find a charge against Him." That's right, they were too busy trying to micro-manage the spiritual lives of others that they could have cared less what good was being done if it didn't fall in line with their definition of what was religiously acceptable. They spent all their time looking for a reason to be critical.

I've been in churches - and I'm afraid I've also played my part as well - where members were just looking for a reason to criticize and complain about every little thing that didn't go their way. If we take a close look at the kinds of complaints and criticisms that are most often offered up in church settings we would find that the vast majority are centered around petty concerns and self-righteous preferences. Whether it's about the music that is played, the "dress code" that is trying to be enforced, the committee-on-committee-on-committee that absolutely must make decisions, or the fact that the preacher we have now just doesn't preach like the one we used to have, this barrage of constant criticism and ridiculousness benefits no one. It's one thing to stand up and defend the truth of God's word, it's a whole other animal to be more concerned with appearances and preferences.

Are many believers so busy looking through a legalistic microscope into others lives so that they can find charges against them that they miss out on what God's real desire for His ministry is all about? I'm afraid that's the case more often than not. How great would it be to see God's people genuinely concerned about sharing the gospel message with the lost world instead of spreading their own agenda within the church walls!