It's not the Critic who counts...

Recently I was involved in a conversation with friends who were discussing how as they watch movies they have begun to notice all the little inconsistencies that exist in the picture. For instance, in one scene the main character is shown wearing glasses. The next frame shows another angle and the man is seen sans the glasses. Finally, the camera switches back to the original view, and his glasses appear again.

One friend commented that in the movie Braveheart there is a battle scene wear William Wallace begins by running toward the battle line with a sword in his hand. The camera shows more activity and when it returns to William Wallace, he is seen running with no weapon at all. The scene changes again and returns once more to show William running with a different weapon in his hand (mace, numchucks, axe, ...something besides a sword).

I had lunch with a friend today and I thought of this conversation as we talked. My lunch friend likes to keep his distance in relationships and in church. He at times takes the role of the critic and watches with a skeptical eye. I am sure he has many justifications for it. He has been in many bad church situations and has been mistreated and misjugded. However, we are both part of a wonderful life giving community of authentic saints. Not perfect folks. We all know that those do not exist. However, honest, true disciples who have no agenda other than to grow in Christ and in love for Him, each other and the lost. In this environment, he can choose to keep his guard up and watch and observe, or let it down and enter in. I challenged him to enter in not as a critic but as a participant.

I am reminded of a quote I once read by Teddy Roosevelt which reads as follows: "

“It is not the critic who counts, nor the man who points out how the strong man stumbled, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena; whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, and spends himself in a worthy cause; Who, at the best, knows in the end the triumph of high achievement; and who, at the worst, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.”
President Theodore Roosevelt
Speech at the Sorbonne
April 23, 1910