The destructive power of criticism

A friend and I experienced an enjoyable day of cricket at the Headingley ground in Leeds recently. Yorkshire were involved in a hard-fought Roses match against their old rivals, Lancashire. Honours after the morning's play went to Yorkshire, who took several Lancashire wickets. It looked for a while as though Yorkshire were placing themselves in a very handy position for victory.

The early part of the afternoon, however, saw a Lancashire fight-back, with Yorkshire struggling to take the final few Lancashire wickets. At a time when the relatively young Yorkshire team needed some encouragement, a chap sitting a few rows behind us began to moan and complain in a rather loud voice. He obviously felt that he knew far more about cricket tactics than the Yorkshire captain, and could bowl far better than most of the Yorkshire bowlers! On and on he droned.

My mind went back to a meeting earlier in the week, where we had been looking at a passage in the Old Testament book of Exodus. The first part of the book relates God's miraculous deliverance of the Israelites from slavery in Egypt. But it didn't take very long for the people's joy to turn sour. The writer tells us, 'The whole community grumbled against Moses and Aaron' (their leaders).

In our discussion on this passage we agreed that grumbling and complaining can be a very destructive force. It's so easy to be negative about things, but rarely does a complaining attitude bring about a positive outcome. I have experienced the destructive nature of such negativity on occasions over the years, and even, sadly, within the church. Yet we are told quite clearly in the New Testament letter of James, 'Don't grumble against one another, brothers and sisters, or you will be judged'.

I playfully suggested that one way to reduce complaining would be to say that if anyone complains they should stand on one leg to do so! I think that might cut down the amount of complaining which goes on, though I'm not sure that the idea would catch on. Of course there are going to be times when we can quite rightly point out things we don't agree with, but I think that if we start by seeking out the positives, and try to be as encouraging as possible, it would make a great difference.

Sadly, Yorkshire ultimately lost a close match. Perhaps if my "friend" in the crowd had been a bit more encouraging to the players it might have helped them do better?