There seems to be a new buzzword these days -
"feedback". Apparently, provided you call it "feedback"
nobody is allowed to get upset even if you really rip into them, criticise
everything they do and leave them a dejected and demoralized wreck. As long as
you can say "hey I'm just giving you some feedback" then it is
clearly all their fault if your "feedback" upsets them.
But really when you think about it "feed
back" is little more than a euphemism for throwing up something you ate.
So next time you feel the urge to give some "feedback" to somebody
try saying instead "hey I just want to throw up all over you because
something disagreed with me". If nothing else it might make you stop and
realise it is probably much closer to the truth than you are really comfortable
with.
But when Jesus said to Peter if you love me feed
my sheep (John 21:17) He made it clear that there is a way to feed one another
that is loving and nurturing as well as nourishing. However the way we feed
others determines whether we are actually giving them food for thought or are
simply "dishing it out".
What is it about home cooking that makes it so
much better than cafeteria cuisine? After all food is food is food isn't it? A
carrot from the kitchen and a carrot from the cafeteria are both carrots,
probably even from the same supplier. Why should one be any different from the
other? And yet we would all prefer a lovingly prepared home cooked meal over
the impersonal fare a cafeteria dishes out on any given day.
Strangely enough the answer does not lay with
the cook either. The answer actually lays in the relationship between the cook
and the eater! What makes a home cooked meal so much nicer AND so much more
nutritious and healthier than a meal dished out at the cafeteria is the bond of
love that exists between the cook and the eater. So much more goes into a home
cooked meal than what is on the plate. Each meal is the product of an intimate
knowledge of likes and dislikes, individual needs and individual problems,
capacities and incapacities, tastes and timetables In short all those things that can only come
from spending hours, days, weeks, and years of quality time and quality
involvement with each other in a loving relationship that has genuine and
loving care and concern for the other at its heart. The type of loving
relationship that alone says "we are FAMILY!".
So next time you are planning to give somebody
the "feedback" you think they need, remember that unless you have
taken the time and made the effort to spend quality time and involvement
getting to know all about them in a loving and caring relationship that says to
BOTH "we are family". And unless you are prepared to sit down with
them, and eat that meal you are serving up together with them, as well as help
to tidy up after then the truth is you are simply doing nothing more than
impersonally DISHING IT OUT in the cafeteria of your own self-righteousness.
D.J. Ludlow
Provided it is done freely and without
charge
"Roasts, Chips And Other Servings!"
may be copied, used and distributed
(in its entirety only, including this
notice)
by brothers and sisters in Christ
to the profit and glory of The Lord
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By special permission of
D.J. Ludlow copyright 2014
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