Do
you like being rebuked, having your failures laid out before you by someone who
has earned the right to speak into your life? How about by someone who you
don’t respect? Rebukes can be difficult to take. They usually happen at a point
of vulnerability, our vulnerability.
Rebukes
can be life-giving! As a child runs out into a busy road, the screamed “Stop!”
brings life. Our attitude toward the source of the rebuke makes a big
difference in how we respond to the rebuke. If we trust the person to have our
best interest at heart, we allow the rebuke to correct our behavior or
attitude. If we don’t know the person, or trust them, we generally blow off the
rebuke.
We
all need correction. We all need people who know us well enough to know when we
are getting off track. They watch our life and bring a course correction early
in our self-imposed detour. They don’t allow us to get too far off track. They
are there with just the right word to get our attention, and only enough rebuke
as is needed to get us back on track.
One
of the greatest barriers to receiving correction is pride. When we have too
large a picture of our importance we generally will not hear a rebuke. We will
come up with excuses to dismiss what was said. Inside we know it is true, but
we fight like a pit bull to keep up our delusion.
If
we ignore this kind of discipline, then we really demonstrate that we don’t
like ourselves. It is as though we were playing with high voltage wires, being
told how dangerous they are, and yet we continue to play with the wires. We
know sin’s costs are high, and yet we continue to ignore the voices that remind
us of the cost of sin and of the freedom that comes with obedience.
But
in order for us to accept a rebuke, we must have a proper understanding of who
we are. We will always be just creatures! We will never be the Creator. The
Creator has the right to create life in any way He chooses. He gets to choose
the proper and most productive way of using everything He creates. If we use it
according to the instruction manual, it works at peak performance. If we ignore
the maintenance schedule, we will breakdown, creating costly and time consuming
repairs. Our very lives were created. He knows how we live lives that are the
most fulfilling. When we live them according to their design, harmony and peace
reign.