{{2013_11_01_t1.jpg}} {{2013_11_01_t2.jpg}} {{2013_11_01_t3.jpg}} [[http://www.jesusnetwork.eu/de/doku.php/jn_de_2013_11_01|Deutsche Version]] [[Start|| Wiki Start]] [[topics_collection_v|| Topics Collection v ]] ======Dreams about Critical Support ...====== Friday, Nov 1, 2013. When we talk about critical attitudes - let us dream a little bit how we would like things to be! Dreams are always an important tool for orientation. Without dreams, we are stuck in the presence and the past. But dreams can start to evolve where we want to go. Human life is including the past, the presence and the future! {{2013_11_01.jpg }} **Dreaming of a Constructive Society ...** Do we want others to criticise us? Do we want to be self-critical? And if yes, how do we want this to happen? Imagine a society where no one criticises any other person. That would be extremely boring. And it would be a society which would be stuck completely. Being critical also means that we think about how things are, what could be better and where we want to go! These are very crucial things for any group of people and also for any individual. Without criticism we are stuck. But there is destructive criticism. Yes, it exists. And you have probably some cases in mind. We need critical attitudes, but we do not need destructive criticism. Let us keep that in mind. When we talk about criticiam, we think of a constructive criticism, a supportive criticism! {{ 2013_11_01_2.jpg}} **Supportive Criticism ...** ** The base of supportive criticism is that someone or a group needs to know that we search for the best possible path for them. We want them to be well, want them to florish and we also want to take them serious with their personal situation, with their own preferences, their decisions and their own dreams. Without this basis, I would not call a criticism supportive and constructive. I believe that the bible gives us this kind of supportive criticism. What God does in Jesus, is the base. Jesus dies for us - he completely clarifies that he wants us to live, that he wants us to be with him eternally. This is unconditional - we do not need to succeed or bring anything. He provides our future, even before we can act and without anything we can add to it. Supportive criticism needs this clear YES which is spoken at the beginning, and then again and again. But of course, supportivie criticism is not only support, it is more detailed engagement and discussion about what is there and about the path we go. Criticism means "to separate what is good and what is not good". This might not always be clear in every detail. But we need to talk about it, we need to discuss different components of what we did, do and plan. Supportive criticism also needs freedom. Not every step can be judged in advance. We need the freedom to try something out. We need freedom to go in this or that direction, even if we have the opinion it might not be the best to do that. Without that freedom, which is still constructively supported, we will end up in a dictatorship of criticism. Supportive criticism gives freedom and will be its supportive and critical companion! (Roland Potthast) [[http://www.jesusnetwork.eu/en/doku.php/topics_collection_v|... more texts]]