Visioneering

I am currently reading "Visioneering" by Andy Stanley and I just got done reading his chapter on warding off criticism. There are a few things that really hit me hard as I read this. First of all, every vision will have criticism. Whether that's vision for a church, vision for your relationships, vision for your future, etc. Vision is usually something that is not yet but someday will be. People are sometimes uncomfortable with change and the unknown. The Biblical example in the entire book of "Visioneering" is the story of Nehemiah. Nehemiah had a vision to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem. Nehemiah knew what the walls represented to God's people and he had a dream of what should be. With Nehemiah's vision came criticism. People in the surrounding nations did not want the walls to be rebuilt, it was a threat to them. Even though Nehemiah faced criticism, he remained vision centered. The reason Nehemiah was able to remain vision centered was he prayed. Every time a criticism came to Nehemiah he went directly to the Lord. Here is what Andy says in his book,

"Our natural response to criticism is to defend ourselves. This is especially true when our vision is under attack. We are tempted to begin a dialogue with our critics or with those who are parroting their criticism. Consequently, we waste energy and thought trying to answer questions for people who are not really interested in the answers. Without realizing it, our focus begins to shift. Instead of being vision centered, we slowly become critic centered."

Ouch! I know for me personally my first response is to defend myself and try to dialogue with the criticism. The better thing to do is to pray and give it to my heavenly Father. That's what Nehemiah did. Because Nehemiah gave it to God, he didn't loose sight of the vision God gave him and eventually he was able to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem. If you are facing criticism today for a vision that God has birthed in you, give that criticism to God and keep moving forward with the vision God gave you. It's not easy, but its God's plan that you stay on course!