Criticism is sometimes a friend, sometimes a foe or, maybe after the curtains are drawn, it’s both.

Either way, have you noticed most critics are content to watch the show and sit idly by criticizing mistakes and flaws from the comfort of their chair without any risk or involvement in the glorious mess required in making your message and movement more meaningful beyond the curtain call?

Theodore Roosevelt said, “It is not the critic that counts; not the man who points out how the strong men stumble, or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; because there is not effort without error and shortcomings.”

People don’t talk like that anymore, but maybe we should.

People like their chairs very much. Much more than they like the prospect of change or getting too involved.

From the comfort of their chairs, people feel safe and tend toward criticizing. The reality is their chairs are a false sense of security, a smoke-and-mirrors illusion providing them with the perfect camouflage enabling them to avoid involved action.

What if people today are more insecure than they ever have been. Then a comfortable spectator chair, in the audience, without any responsibility or part to play in the production seems like a safe place. The chair and all the criticisms spewing from its occupants are a grand cover up. It’s the ultimate camouflage for the insecure soul.

Take heart if you’re an adventurous soul who’s not afraid to go against society. There’s a reason your efforts and errors draw so much criticism from the content chair warmers. You actually might succeed and that terrifies them.

Your efforts leading to a new or better way to live, to move and to exist together means their business as usual just got smashed.

The closer you get to some sort of innovative breakthrough, the more they amp up the criticism from the safety of their seats. Thus, criticism from the chairs, especially those seats occupied by people whose vocations or industry are directly affected by your success, always are going to grow in volume and intensity the closer you get to creating a better way of doing business.

So, I’ve come to think about some criticisms this way: It’s a measuring yardstick confirming how close you are to emptying a lot of chairs.

If you actually think about it, you begin to understand the truth of the matter. To the degree you actually succeed, you make them look bad. And if you create a new standard, raising the bar changing the expectations, then they might be expected to change, learn and required to perform according to a new or higher standard.

For some people, their current chairs are so comfortable they would rather die than give up their seats. For others, even if they don’t change seats, watching you do what you actually were created to do convicts them. It reminds them of what their supposed to be doing instead of criticizing you from a chair they never were intended to be seated in in the first place.

Your courage to dare greatly and willingness to fail in the process convicts them to change chairs.

Don’t despair. Some chair warmers are beyond changing and their camouflage needs to be exposed allowing the world to see them for the actual insecure critics they are. Mold breakers always make mold growers mad. So live your passion and make waves, making the world a better place to live for everyone.

Remember this, chair-warming critics actually are your friends because the intensity and degree of their criticism allow you to measure exactly how close you are to realizing more meaningful molds of operation that expand and make life better for everyone.

Finally, consider this: “Amateurs built the ark, professionals built the Titanic.” Which ship would you rather be a chair warmer on?

Dr. T.J. Kimble of Radcliff is a clinical pastoral counselor. He can be reached at tj@yourbestlifenowcounseling.com.