’The first time I started to spread my wings in business to fly higher, the pellets started to whistle by my ears! “He will never be able to get the financing for that office building.” “He doesn’t have the expertise to make it fly.” “I heard he is having cash flow problems.” People can be vicious.
I learned a quick lesson: The visible target is the one that gets shot at. You can disappear in the middle of the flock, or you can set yourself apart for excellence and become a target.
As the undeserved rumors and snide remarks started to make their way back to me, I was devastated. There I was trying to rise above the quagmire of mediocrity, and the shotguns were all aimed at me!
One morning, as I lamented to the Lord over this unfair criticism, He kindly guided me to a proverb which has changed my life. No longer do I concern myself with what others might say about me. Instead, I simply recall the promise of God to each of us who is wrongly maligned: “Like a fluttering sparrow or a darting swallow, an undeserved curse does not come to rest” (Proverbs 26:2).
In some mysterious way, by the power of God’s Holy Spirit, an undeserved curse goes in one ear of the hearer and out the other. God miraculously helps the hearer discern what is true and not true.’
