VALERIE PHILLIPS
n most families someone took intricate items apart, piece by
piece--a clock, maybe, or a radio, or a 10-speed bike. Before anyone realized
what was happening, the pieces were so widely scattered that they could never
be put back together again.
Remember the look on your parents' faces when they told you,
"Don't take it apart if you can't put it back together!" Wise words
indeed, as we were soon to find out.
After we left home, our teachers expected us to dissect sentences.
And frogs. And, eventually, ideas. Truth is, we can learn and did learn
from the taking apart.
But unchecked, critically trained people can become proud of
their ability to analyze and pick apart, can see it almost as a badge of honor.
If the full extent of one's commentary is to criticize, that hardly counts as
honor, and may in fact be the opposite; self-seeking, arrogant, maybe even cowardly.
It doesn't take genius to see what's wrong: it takes wisdom and courage to find
solutions that make things better.
"Critical thinking," by contrast, is not a negative,
destructive force, but the ability to see the individual parts that make up
a working whole. Critical thinking invites us to be utterly clear in our analysis--and
utterly helpful in proposing creative answers.
I've been blessed with a series of supervisors who won't abide
complaining, but who actively encourage creative problem solving. They've said
that if I feel justified in criticizing a person or a policy, I'd better be
so well versed in the issues involved that I can frame workable suggestions
for improvement.
That's fair. If I want to truly change my world, not just rail
against it, I need to ask myself what I can do, not what I can undo; what I
can deploy, not what I can destroy.
When faced with a circumstance that is clearly not working,
what can we do?
We can listen before we speak. We will learn
a lot about what makes organizations, churches, and families tick--just by thoughtful
observation.
We can be honest about our true motives. Sometimes,
we don't really want to do anything constructive about the mess we see. We simply
want to be the one pointing out the problem.
We can determine if this way of looking at life is
becoming a habit. We can grow so accustomed to being critical that it
becomes a habitual response. If so, God can change our attitude.
We can ask God what role He'd have us play in the situations
about which we are feeling so critical. If we don't like the attitudes
of others in our home, or the policies of our church, or the ways colleagues
are behaving at our workplace, might there be a constructive role God can give
us to change our small corner of the situation? It's unlikely that God has given
us the spiritual gift of criticism. But He's probably given us gifts to help
resolve the conflict.
We can determine why we so much more easily tear apart
than build up. Is our temperament prone to easy negativity? Have we
lost our belief that situations, people, or institutions can change?
Do we doubt that even God can heal the problem we face? When turned over to
Him, there is no limit to what He can do with a situation that seemed hopeless
just moments before.
Scripture admonishes us to work together to build up the body
of Christ. Each of us is a part of an intricate and long-scattered whole. Until
we allow God to put us back together--individually and as a family of believers--we
can never be whole, never represent the body of believers to an unsaved and
equally scattered world.
We'll find it is more challenging, and far more rewarding,
to be part of the solution, rather than just another voice of criticism.
And more honorable, too.
_________________________
Valerie Phillips is an associate director of the women's residence hall at
Andrews University, where she has ministered to college women for 25 years.
