Okay, so I have been reading this blog since before this guy made it cool. It's written by a Christian who likes to poke fun at Christians, himself included. It's pretty insightful and almost always true. It honestly makes me laugh out loud (aka lol) to think about how silly we can be sometimes, and I thought I would share part of a post entitled "Refusing to Take Compliments" with you. I'm thinking about adopting this idea, so please don't take offense if you hear me say it.
...the truth is that I hate compliments. I can't take them. The minute someone says something nice about me I discount it. I say things like, "Oh that was nothing. Anyone could have done that." Or, like many Christians, I say something holy sounding like, "It was all God. To Him be the glory."
Why are compliments the Christian version of kryptonite? What makes us so uncomfortable? My dad told me a story about a minister complimenting a girl after she sang a song. She blushed and rejected his words by saying, "That was not me, that was all God." He responded by saying something like, "I said it was a good song, I didn't think it was heavenly though. No offense, but I think God would have hit that high note."
I completely think that pride is one of our greatest enemies and I constantly have to be on guard for it. That's why I've started going back to counseling. It's so easy to get intoxicated on compliments. And I've seen lots of young pastors crumble under the weight of positive feedback when their churches blow up with attendance. But from this moment forward, if I give you a compliment and you tell me, "God did that, not me," please know that I am going to reply , "Nah, that was you. He would have done a much better job."
...the truth is that I hate compliments. I can't take them. The minute someone says something nice about me I discount it. I say things like, "Oh that was nothing. Anyone could have done that." Or, like many Christians, I say something holy sounding like, "It was all God. To Him be the glory."
Why are compliments the Christian version of kryptonite? What makes us so uncomfortable? My dad told me a story about a minister complimenting a girl after she sang a song. She blushed and rejected his words by saying, "That was not me, that was all God." He responded by saying something like, "I said it was a good song, I didn't think it was heavenly though. No offense, but I think God would have hit that high note."
I completely think that pride is one of our greatest enemies and I constantly have to be on guard for it. That's why I've started going back to counseling. It's so easy to get intoxicated on compliments. And I've seen lots of young pastors crumble under the weight of positive feedback when their churches blow up with attendance. But from this moment forward, if I give you a compliment and you tell me, "God did that, not me," please know that I am going to reply , "Nah, that was you. He would have done a much better job."
4 comments:
Whoa, whoa, whoa!
Why am I getting slammed here? "Long before this guy made it cool?"
And why the heck didn't you tell me about this site in the first place?
Okay, okay...I'll distribute 2000 points into your Blog Cred Account. You should see a difference in your balance by 2pm tomorrow.
hey! I linked you! it's props!
also, Stuff Christians Like is based off of another site: Stuff White People Like, and it's also quite humorous.
http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.wordpress.com/
I know the "white people" site was there first...I just never found it all that funny.
But Jon Acuff's stuff is brilliant. I keep thinking of suggestions to send him, but he's done them all already!
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