Quailing Before the Critics
Even when potshots wing you, your preaching can fly again.
Doug Jackson
April 1, 1990
"And you have never heard a worse preacher!"
- 2 Corinthians 10:10 (TLB)
Those caustic Corinthians found preachers they preferred to Paul, and they let Paul know it.
We pastors often deal with similar attacks but without Paul's track record to bolster us. How do we respond when people turn sour and assault our preaching? Two recent experiences taught me that such an onslaught brings pain but also benefits.
Our church property backs up to the Fort McDowell Indian Reservation. One morning, as I took a stroll through the desert, the issue of criticism crystallized.
Two Gambel's quail, a male and his mate, skittered among the scrubby bushes before me, picking their way through the appaloosa sunlight of early morning. I studied the male especially. Larger than his partner, he strutted out front by half a length. His James Dean crest flopped over a Lou Costello face, an absurd specimen of gray-feathered aristocracy.
"Do you know how silly you look?" I snorted to him. He didn't.
I scrutinized his mate a moment, a modest thing in hausfrau gray and brown. Unliberated, she kept demurely tailfeatherward of her companion.
"He probably tells you he stays out front to protect you," I mused. "Fact is, he only means to get to the chow first. Why not deflate the clown?"
Then something spooked the pair. As predicted, Sir Quail made no move to tilt a lance for his lady. Both exploded in fury, pounding skyward. The female fluttered easily, while her mate tried to shatter the hold of gravity in short, shuddering strokes. But what grace he stole as he hit airspeed! He swept the wind on outstretched wings to land softly among the neon thorns of a paloverde tree.
I returned to my study and squared off against a dry pile of books and notes that were refusing ...
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