Matthew 11:16-19

Jesus had to deal with a lot of criticism. Just think of how often he was criticized. People criticized who he ate with, what day of the week he healed, who he spoke with, and so on. All the way to the cross, Jesus was criticized.

One of the many things I love about Jesus is how he responded to criticism. Jesus responded to criticism with both words and actions. Jesus defended his actions with words and defended his words with actions. Jesus was a man of both honesty and integrity. As a result, both his words and actions had tremendous power.

We too will criticize and be criticized. It is an unavoidable part of our life as human beings.  We will not be pleased by everyone and we will not be able to please everyone, no matter how hard we try. Now this does not mean we should not be good people or not be good to people, what this means is that we should be wise people and wise about people.

We human beings are all complex. We will never fully understand what is going on in our own heads, and especially other people’s heads, even those we are closest to. We will say and do things that will confound ourselves and one another.

At the end of the day, we are most likely to criticize our own selves. One of the worst freedoms we have is the freedom to crucify our own selves in our own head through relentless self-criticism. We can spend the rest of our lives agonizing over every mistake we’ve ever made. We can also spend the rest of our lives in wisdom, learning and moving on from our mistakes.  This God given freedom to choose how we want to live our lives is a beautiful gift, but it’s also a tremendous responsibility.

We have a responsibility to live a solid life. A life solid with meaning, a life solid with change, and a life solid with God. This solidarity forms the foundation of how we build our days.

Jesus reminds us we must keep returning to wisdom while in the arena of humanity. Of course this is easier said than done. But, as the man himself says, wisdom is vindicated by her deeds.