Thick Skins

One of my new favorite authors, Mike Dellosso, posted a great blog post about the need for authors to have a thick skin to handle negative reviews - original post on his blog, wide-eyed fiction. I agreed with what he said, and commented on it, but it has had me thinking..... not only authors need to be thick-skinned, but we all do, but especially Christians.

Now I will admit right off, that I need to be more "thick-skinned", and that largely in part due to this wonderful depression, that I have been extremely irritable lately, but isn't it true - Christians should be more thick-skinned than anyone else?

I have posted a few negative reviews of books. One author thanked me and wanted to send me his next book to review. Another responded pretty graciously, a third did not. There are other times in life where people may do or say things that hurt, make us angry - and all too often we can't take it. We don't get the church office we want. Our child doesn't get invited to a birthday party. We invite a family over for supper, and they never return the favor. He looked at me wrong. She said something mean. It happens.

Thing is, if we can't handle these things that come up in life all too often, how on earth will we be able to handle out and out religious persecution? Which would you rather have - someone say they didn't like a book y ou wrote, that your kid is a brat and needs spanked, or beaten because you claim Jesus as your Savior.

Christians shouldn't be wimps, and sometimes you have to stand up for your rights. If the phone company rips you off on your bill and owes you money, of course you should go after it, but with the right attitude. If someone calls your kid a brat and says they need spanked, they might be right - and no, I never told anyone that, but I have thought it several times. :-)

Jesus guaranteed that any who follow Him would be persecuted and hated by the world - and no, He isn't calling getting a negative book review, or not getting an office you wanted at church, persecution - but I think if we were more thick-skinned and handled these things that life throws us, we just might be able to handle actual persecution if and when it comes.