Baptism By Fire

To inoculate me from the praise of man, He baptised me in the criticism of man,

until I died to control of man." Francis Frangipane

I like this quote.  I see it often.  When I think about it, the process, in my mind, is very happy-go-lucky.  God allows you to be criticized and then *poof* all things are better.

There must've been another paragraph.  I think it was left out for the sake of brevity.  That next paragraph had to include the words grueling, painful and aching.  It must've covered the topics guilt, friendship and shock.  Otherwise, I'm not sure Frank there every really dealt with the criticism of man.

The best part of these situations is that you won't ask for them.  Nope.  If you give them a reason to criticize you, you can't claim this quote.  It has to come completely out of the blue.  You have to have no real guilt associated with the situation.  Instead, there will be phantom guilt because you are the last man standing in a game you never asked to play.

You have to wonder how people feel about you.  You'll have good friends who will make their opinions known.  In fact, in your worst moments, they will yell something about how great you are and how stupid this is.  You'll be thankful for them, because you'll be so self-conscious about everyone else, you won't know how to carry yourself.

They'll also be people on the opposite side of the spectrum.  Hopefully, you'll be able to give them two lines and leave it at that.

And there will be people in the middle.  They will worry you the most, because they'll never share how they really feel.  If you're confident in your ability, you'll know their opinions don't matter.  But on the days you aren't so confident, or when you're caught off-guard, you'll wonder.

Frank also didn't mention that the baptism isn't a one-time affair.  Oh, no.  Instead, it will be a random merry-go-round that occasionally stops on your lucky number.

But I'm told the end result is amazing.