Responding to Criticism

This is not a “poor me” discussion, so please don’t take it that way.

I think that it takes a certain type of attitude to invite criticism from others. For example, I like to utilize the “One Minute Papers” that the school offers at the end of class. I generally don’t read them for a few days so that I don’t react emotionally to what’s said in them. Sometimes I don’t agree with the comments, sometimes the comments are about things that I can’t change in the course do to the way it’s written, but other times the comments will strike a chord within me that makes me realize that I didn’t do something correctly or a student left class more confused or less educated about a subject than when they came into class.

It is extremely humbling to have to read some of the responses I get sometimes (and not always in a good way). However, when you read them with a teachable attitude and a spirit of improving yourself, you can get through it, you can pick up some new knowledge that you didn’t have before, and you can especially improve yourself when you encounter the same situation the next time.

Abraham Lincoln knew what it meant to face criticism. He is quoted as saying, “If I were to try to read, much less answer, all the attacks made on me, this shop might as well be closed for any other business. I do the very best I know how—the very best I can; and I mean to keep doing so until the end. If the end brings me out all right, what’s said against me won’t amount to anything. If the end brings me out wrong, ten angels swearing I was right would make no difference.”

Lincoln, against huge opposition, went on to reunite the fractured United States, win the Civil War, and abolish slavery in the US. Had he allowed his critics to defeat him, Lincoln would not have accomplished what he did.

End of Construction

I feel that one of the most frustrating things to convince a nonbeliever is that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:23). Non-Christians typically believe that Christians should be perfect and do no wrong. Otherwise, how powerful can God be if all His followers are so imperfect?

I think that the perspective offered here, that our lives are like a road under construction, is an excellent analogy. It lets those who don’t follow Christ understand that we are no better than they, but we only have our saving faith in Jesus to fall back on when we sin and the nonbeliever has nothing. Similarly, I think that remembering that we will be under construction until the day we die will help us when it comes to repentence and not dwelling in self-pity when we sin. We need to recognize and be restored, and that can only be done by drawing closer to God in those moments.

Years ago, Ruth Bell Graham, wife of evangelist Billy Graham, saw a sign by the road: “End of Construction—Thank you for your patience.” Smiling, she remarked that she wanted those words on her gravestone.

Every follower of Christ can share the confidence that God’s faithfulness will carry us through this period of spiritual building on earth. We echo Jude’s words of praise: “Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy, to God our Savior, who alone is wise, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and forever” (Jude 1:24-25).

Today, we’re in the construction zone. Jude’s letter challenges us to grow in faith, pray in the Spirit, and remain surrounded by God’s love (vv.20-21). But this construction is not a self-centered process. We are to show mercy to others and rescue those in danger of spiritual ruin (vv.22-23). One day our construction will be complete, a prospect that’s worth so much more than a smile.  

The Chimp’s Birthday Card

I think we live in a culture where it is okay to eschew personal accountability. When companies suffer from scandalous news, spin doctors that they’ve hired on staff try to reduce any damage to their reputations. Lawyers settle lawsuits against such companies out-of-court, but they are generally kept from admitting wrongdoing. What’s worse is that by reducing personal accountability, we have often reduced the consequences for doing the wrong thing.

I love this verse from the Bible that is quoted–it’s one of my favorite comedic lines, and yet the stupidity that Adam feigns is so true. He is the typical guy in this situation. He knows he’s in trouble, so he figures if he plays dumb and blames it on Eve, he’ll stay on God’s good side and will avoid the consequences for eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. “Duh… she gave it to me, so I ate it!” Couldn’t let the fruit go to waste, right? Couldn’t risk upsetting her or insulting her by refusing her gift, right? Yeah, I’m pretty sure that neither of those thoughts crossed his mind…

Not long ago my wife asked me to pick up a belated birthday card for her brother. Scanning the rack, I ran across a card with a chimpanzee on the front holding a phone receiver in his hand.

This is what it said: “I better not hear . . . about how upset you are that I missed your birthday. I mean, how do you know I wasn’t in a serious car accident and lying in some ditch out in the middle of nowhere? . . . Well, I may have forgotten your birthday, but I didn’t exactly get any phone calls to see if I was okay. All I know is you better have a good excuse why I didn’t hear from you on your birthday!”

The extent to which people avoid legitimate responsibility is almost laughable, but it is nothing new. When God confronted Adam for eating the forbidden fruit, he chose to blame his wife and God. When we have done something wrong, we can either accept legitimate blame for what we have done or shift the blame to others. The way that pleases God and results in spiritual growth is to accept personal responsibility for our actions. Irrationally blaming others is no laughing matter.

The Sorrow Of Betrayal

I have nothing to add about this devotion… just liked the imagery.

When I was a boy, my dad observed my spendthrift ways and often said that money burned a hole in my pocket. I suppose it’s not unlike the way those 30 pieces of silver burned a hole in Judas’ heart after he had betrayed Jesus for a little cash. Imagine how he must have felt as he watched his friend Jesus, with hands bound, being led to trial. Judas had seen those hands calm the stormy sea and touch the blind and lame. How often those loving hands had touched his own life!

For Judas, the silver was no longer a reward but rather a reminder of what he had done to Jesus. With every step, the clanging coins sounded a dirge of condemnation, until in despair he admitted, “I have sinned by betraying innocent blood” (Matt. 27:4).

When we make choices that betray Jesus, eventually our lives become filled with sorrow. Even well-intentioned followers find that their desire to love and serve Him is frequently on a collision course with the lure of cash or other seductions. But the things we have gained at His expense ultimately and inevitably become clanging symbols of sorrow and regret.

The next time you have to make a choice about cash—or anything else—remember the clatter of Judas’ condemning coins, and don’t betray your loving Leader.

Wanted: CEOs to Lead Us Through Economic Turmoil

We read about nonverbal communication for this week’s class, but here’s a form that you may not have considered: organizational visibility. In other words, if you are a leader who is available to your subordinates and are seen with an upbeat and cheerful attitude, you are likely to encourage your employees and keep a mood of hopefulness across the organization.

In times like these, this country more than ever needs visionary, courageous CEOs who can keep people focused on the future and give them reason to have faith in their companies.

During this time of economic uncertainty when many people are growing fearful, anxious and depressed, CEOs and leaders need to be a beacon of hope in their companies. Now is not the time to hide in long meetings with each other. Leaders need to get out, show their faces, talk to people and reassure investors, the public, even the media. Leaders need to keep people focused on the future and what they can do right now to keep the economy moving.

A few CEOs are giving the title a bad name right now, those who caused this crisis should give back their ill-gotten earnings and spend some timein jail if they’ve committed crimes.

At the same time, we have many great CEOs and leaders in this company who can help lead us out of this mess. Now is not the time to stop doing business, but to move forward together as one nation, believing in each other and keeping the engines of commerce moving. This will take courage on the part of every leader.

Report Claims Google Profits from Typo-Squatting

We discussed cybersquatting the other night, the registration of domain names to cash in on hits to mistyped and misnamed URLs. It always seems like creeps are doing this sort of thing, but Google?

Typo-squatting has been around since the beginning of the web, but until recently, typo-squatters had limited means of profiting from surfers’ bad spelling or clumsy typing. But using Google’s Adsense for Domains (AFD) program, typo-squatters fill their sites with sponsored links that often point to the legitimate domain. If a misdirected surfer hits a sponsored link, the legitimate domain owner ends up paying the typo-squatter for that referral, and Google as well.

The typo-squatter Bankofdamerica.com, for example, has a sponsored link to the real Bank of America website. Typo-squatting, Edelman says, is illegal. “There sure are a lot of these sites, in the millions,” Edelman said. “The overall majority show Google ads.”

Edelman, an assistant professor at the Harvard Business School and an advisor to McAfee, says there are as many as 80,000 domains “typo-squatting” on the United States’ top 2,000 websites alone, including MySpace, FaceBook and Craigslist. Edelman’s report, published in the McAfee Security Journal, shows that there are as many as 251 typo-squatted domains associated with Bank of America alone, and there are as many as 327 typo-squatted domains feeding off the cartoonnetwork.com site.

The law simply says, “do not typo-squat. Do not register, traffic in or use infringing domain names or confusingly similar names of trademarks,” Edelman says, referring to the Anti-cybersquatting Consumer Protection Act of 1999.

Notice the bit about typo-squatters sitting on domains that look like the cartoonnetwork.com web site. Your kids are even being targeted.

Target to Pay $3 Million in Civil Case

Remember when we talked in class the other night about how defamation of character laws apply to the internet? To wit:

In February 2006, Cantrell was a customer at Target’s locations on Woodruff Road and Wade Hampton Boulevard and was questioned at each location by employees when she tried to pay for merchandise with a $100 bill, which was rejected because it was a 1974 series bill, the complaint alleges.

A loss-prevention employee for Target composed an email that was distributed to a group known as the Carolina Organized Retail Theft Task Force, according to the complaint.

The employee’s email — the contents of which included images of Cantrell shopping and allegations that she had tried to pass a counterfeit bill and had shoplifted — was sent to 31 members of the group, according to the complaint. Members included local, state and federal law enforcement offices, malls, department stores, home-improvement stores and grocery stores, the complaint alleged.

The Secret Service went to Cantrell’s work and subjected her to a “custodial interrogation,” but after looking at the $100, determined the bill was genuine and cleared her of any criminal activity, the complaint alleged.

I have a feeling that my wife is going to be spending more money at Target in the coming months to help pay off their legal bills.

Study: Streaming Video Becoming More Mainstream

Have you streamed a video from the internet onto your computer in the last 30 days? Congratulations! You’re in the majority now!

Since December 2007, the percentage of female Internet users ages 12 and older that have streamed a video online in the past 30 days has grown from 45 percent to 54 percent.  The percentage of adults aged 35-54 streaming video shot up from 49 percent to 60 percent.

It’s interesting to consider the business applications for online video. People get attitudes about having to pay for this stuff online, and yet there is a definite gap between the number of page views and the amount of revenue being generated by them.

Chip Off the Ol’ Block

Are you naturally friendly? I think that many of us (myself included) are in such a hurry most days with all the tasks we have to complete that we avoid going out of our way to talk to people in passing because it will slow us down.

But life has a way of making us anything but like God. We are often uncaring, short-tempered, grumpy, and unforgiving—flat-out too much like ourselves and not enough like Him! Remember, we are saved to bear the Family resemblance, to become increasingly more like Jesus and less like ourselves.

The story is told here that a son learned to chat with others by imitating his dad. It illustrated Paul’s quote to be “imitators of God.” Although some may find it to be idle chatter or inconvenient, simply looking someone in the face, greeting them, and maybe even using their name if you know it can go a long way toward building relationships with others.

A Prayer for the End of the Day

Do you pray before bedtime? I find that it is easy to convince our children to do so, but by the time I am ready to go to bed, I hit the sack and start sawing logs right away. That’s probably not the best mindset to have, I guess.

“Our Father, At the end of another day, we come to you not just by ourselves– but together.

Many of us will readily admit that you have given us again today far more than we deserve. But some of us find ourselves reeling with news that we have not yet been able to understand or even to accept.

So, we come to you together, not only because we know that you alone are to be thanked for our good times, but because you alone are to be trusted in the moments of our loss.

We also admit, Father, that in spite of what we boldly declare in the light, when the sun goes down, we are inclined to worry about things we cannot change or control. So we need your help again tonight to remember with David the King and songwriter of Israel that,

“He who watches over Israel never tires and never sleeps. The LORD himself watches over you! The LORD stands beside you as your protective shade. The sun will not hurt you by day, nor the moon at night. The LORD keeps you from all evil and preserves your life. The LORD keeps watch over you as you come and go, both now and forever” (Psalm 121:4-8 NLT).

So as we get ready to lay our head on our pillow, please let our hearts also find their rest in you.

In the name of your Son Jesus, “Good night, Father.”