Curiously enough, it is always relating to more spiritual matters that I have a hard time distinguishing between when I'm being critical and when I'm being cynical. I find the difference to be a very fine line. 

Being critical towards the church and our own spiritual walk is a good way to evaluate, rationally, how well we are doing as a body of Christ or as a member of it. I think it keeps us humble as we recognize that this race is not finished yet and that God is definitely not done molding us, shaping us and changing us for the better. It also allows us to see our mistakes and to own up to them, and to challenge certain notions that are not so biblical that we adopt simply due to culture or tradition. 

However, being critical has a sneaky way of leading to cynical which I find extremely difficult to circumvent. Because cynicism, in my opinion, is not constructive at all. It is a toxic emotion that only gets worse the more you focus on it and on all the problems that you see. You start to see the church as bad, and wrong fundamentally and this emotion eventually devoids you of the love, the precious love that Christ has for his bride the church. 

But where is this balance? And when do we know that we've crossed a line? Urgh. It's hard to tell. 

But I think the best remedy that I've come up with against falling into cynicism is simply this: take a good look at yourself. Yep, have you removed that log from you own eye yet? I think by looking at ourselves first before we start criticizing others drastically reduces a lot of what we feel and say. Because we realize that we fall short, even by our own standards that we set for others. 

Still, the question remains. When do we know we have crossed into cynicism? 

After humbling myself I still find myself critiquing and wondering if I am the only one that sees certain things in the church; and if everyone else is just blind to them. But then I find myself doubting that notion as well simply because it seems so outrageous and arrogant. *Sigh.