“Praise is inner health made audible,” said C.S. Lewis. This is the kind of person who can go into a restaurant and order everything on the menu and find in each dish something to praise. As opposed to the person who orders everything and finds in each something he dislikes. This is the person who reads a book and praises to others what they love, as opposed to the person who stops reading at the first fault they find.

How does one cultivate a good inner health? Learn to celebrate first and criticize last, if ever. Form the discipline of celebrating all you can, before criticizing all you can.

Simply put, if you see something good, point it out. If you see something bad, resist the urge to point it out. Do this not because pointing out the bad is unnecessary, but simply because it’s harder to celebrate and easier to criticize. In other words, you want to grow your capacity and ability for celebrating over your capacity and tendency for criticizing.

This discipline can have a profound effect. Praise of the good can convince not only that the good is good but also that the bad is the bad. It is only the man who knows the light that can discern the darkness. The man who knows only darkness has no idea of what light is.

Some personal examples. First, as a preacher, I can preach a whole sermon on what is bad, but that doesn’t help anyone to see the good. I can preach a whole sermon on the good, though, and chances are high(er) that in drawing the comparison to the good someone will recognize where they have fallen short. The question is not whether or not one can see, find, and somewhat describe what is wrong or bad; most of us know where we’ve gone wrong. Rather, it’s where we can or should go right that we have a hard time finding. Here a reliable witness is needed.

So the question must become whether or not there is someone who can see, find, rejoice in, and accurately praise the good to another. Again, it is ultimately not the bad that convinces of the bad, but the good. It is ultimately not the dark that convinces of the dark, but the light.

Second, as a preacher, my conviction is that ultimately it is the glory of the gospel of Jesus Christ that convinces a heart there’s a way out of sin, death and darkness, that shows a heart there’s forgiveness for sins and life everlasting. A preacher who constantly hammers on the bad may be skilled with the hammer, but the call is to point people to and exult in the grace of the living Christ.

Third, as a preacher, my capacity to rejoice over another preacher and not compete with them or criticize them is my capacity for meaningful preaching anywhere. So now your capacity to rejoice over someone or celebrate something and not criticize is your capacity for meaningful ministry anywhere. Be, then, the first to celebrate and the last to criticize, if ever.