A Rare Blessing: from a Surprising Source (the turning of the worm)

It is rare indeed that I’m moved viscerally by the words of a critic. Ordinarily it’s God I listen to because my faith in humankind is, quite frankly, minimal to say the least. A few valued mentors I listen to, but many I don’t take with more than a pinch of salt. There are many blind guides out there.

If I’m rarely moved by a critic, I’m generally even less moved by the swinging, swaying ways of this world which a great many love to enter into and specifically write about. A little while back, however, I inadvertently entered into a debate about a certain critic and this critic hence “raptured” himself into bloggivion.

I was humbled in the event of this person’s ‘falling on their sword’ that they sought me out to offer encouragement to continue following God’s call for my life. (As if I have a choice, praise God.)

I valued this person for their perception of things and their incontrovertible (my opinion) intelligence regarding spiritual and life matters. He and I think more similarly than others would like. He is a follower of truth. So much so (and I won’t get into methods--as I’m not aware of things done) he got a few bloggers noses out of joint and had me challenged more than once.

I was left reflecting upon the last of this person’s comments on my blog. They showed genuine humility, courage and selflessness in commenting in such a way that I felt immediately motivated to prostrate myself headlong before God in repentance (and for that I was thankful).

There are common blessings in life like waking up alive and breathing of a morning. There are also rare blessings; things that don’t happen every day--these might only ever occur once! This person, and I’m not sure if they knew it or not, had provided me with the sort of feedback I’d yearned for, for every writer must ask, ‘Do they like the stuff I write?’ and ‘Is it relevant to people’s lives?’ etc.

For me, personally, that was a paramount moment and I will thank God eternally for this gift of his grace through an undoubted servant--someone who chose to encourage when the worldly way would’ve been to roundly condemn.

As an aside, I’ve prayed for this person every time I’ve entered my workplace passwords during the past month. I’ve prayed that they’d simply be blessed. God bless you, whoever you are!