Jesus said, ‘No doubt you will quote this proverb to me, “Physician, heal yourself! Whatever we heard was done at Capernaum, do here in your hometown as well.” No prophet is welcome in his own hometown (Luke 4:24).

John Fogerty’s group Creedence Clearwater Revival is unforgettable to anyone who has owned a radio in the last 50 years.  A few years back, in an interview with newsman Dan Rather, Fogerty was remembering a key moment in the 1960s.

The group was one of many bands to perform at a particular event.  As the final group to warm up, and thus the first band to appear on stage, suddenly CCR found they had been unplugged.  John Fogerty yelled to the sound man to plug them back up, that they weren’t through.  The technician did so reluctantly, then added, “You not going anywhere anyway, man.”  Fogerty said, “Okay.  Give me one year.  I’ll show you.”

One year later, the group was so hot with hit record after hit record (“Proud Mary,” “Born on the Bayou,” “Bad Moon Rising”) that “we were too big to play in that place any more!”

Turning a sarcastic putdown into a healthy sic ’em!

I’m remembering the first day I began pastoring a church on Alligator Bayou some 25 miles west of New Orleans.  In April of 1965 I was in my first year of seminary.  The church was running 40 in attendance, and had done so for the two decades of its existence.

After the service, I’m shaking hands with worshipers as they exit the building.  Behind me, coming through the doors, two men were talking.  They had no idea I could hear them.  One said, “Well, this little church is doing about all it’s ever going to do.”

The other fellow agreed.  But it was like a spark to my powder keg.  Everything inside me went on full alert and I said, “We’ll show you!”

One month later, we hit 67 in attendance.  And during my final few months as pastor, in late 1967, we were running 120 with chairs in the aisles.  The growth continued after I left, I’m happy to report.  A pastor led them to relocate closer to the population center of the area and in time, the denomination recognized them as one of the fastest growing churches in the country.

Some naysayers take delight in popping the bubbles of ambition and goal-setting.  “Who do you think you are?”  “What makes you better than the rest of us?”  “Why do you think you could do it when none of the rest of us could?”

The wise–but extremely difficult–response to such putdowns is to quietly absorb it and turn it into fuel for the journey.  Let their negativism propel you to greater efforts. After all, as you learned in high school algebra, two negatives make a positive.

Margaret Mitchell wrote Gone With the Wind.  We’re told she worked on it for a solid ten years, from 1926 to 1936.  Here is what happened.

An agent came to Atlanta looking for budding novelists with works worthy of being published.  Someone told him about Mrs. Mitchell.  He called her.

No, she informed him.  She had nothing in the works, nothing worthy of publication.

So, he went on, checking out other writers and making more calls.

The next day, Margaret Mitchell came to see him.  “I have a novel to show you.”  She brought out two boxes filled with drafts of her book.

The agent was puzzled.  “Didn’t you tell me yesterday you had nothing?”

What had happened, Margaret Mitchell explained, was that a so-called friend who fancied herself a novelist told her she would never make it.  “You’re too nice a person,” she said, “and you’re not a good writer.” The woman had told her, “Now, I’m going to make it big.  I’ll be famous.  But you, Margaret, will never be much of a writer and you should get used to that.”

Rather than internalize the putdown, Mrs. Mitchell let it energize her.  With that, she decided to load up her book and drive down to meet the agent.  She turned the sarcastic put-down into a sic ’em.

Her novel became a Pulitzer Prize-winner.  Just three years later, Gone With the Wind was the biggest movie ever, took home a ton of awards, and turned Margaret Mitchell into a star of the first order.

What sarcastic barbs have you endured lately?  What are you going to do with them?

You get to make a decision.  You have to make a decision.  You will make a decision.  No matter what you decide, it will be a decision.  Make it the right one.