I love playing Whac-A-Mole game. Wikipdia defined Whac-A-Male game this way:

“A typical Whac-A-Mole machine consists of a large, waist-level cabinet with five holes in its top and a large, soft, black mallet. Each hole contains a single plastic mole and the machinery necessary to move it up and down. Once the game starts, the moles will begin to pop up from their holes at random. The object of the game is to force the individual moles back into their holes by hitting them directly on the head with the mallet, thereby adding to the player’s score. The quicker this is done the higher the final score will be.”

From all the kids’ games, I love playing Whac-A-Mole and I am sure you know the reason. I love it because it is easy. All you have to do is you hold on to your “hammer” and bung the head of every mole which tries to come out of its hole. No matter how much that mole tries, if you “bung” it, it will go back down to its hole. It doesn’t need your prayers, it doesn’t require your brain, it doesn’t need your hard work either. You just stand on a side and bung, bung, bung, bung! And if you bung lots of moles and able to keep them right back to their holes, the machine will declare that you are the winner.

Wow! This game is fun only when it is played on the machine, not in real life.

Have you seen people who come to church and don’t do anything for the church, the Body of Christ, but criticize the people who are working hard?

All they do is they stand on a side and criticize and badmouth those who work hard. If you’ve ever seen their comments on Facebook, you will never find encouraging words in them. Their comments read something like, “You are wrong” or “You are lying” or “You are not from God” or “You have to learn more than this,” or “You are not competent to write or say this” and more.

Do they pray before they voice their opinion? Not at all! Do they ever go to the minister of the Word of God and say something like, “Thank you for your hard work?” No, they are “Whac-ers!” They bang the “servant” who strives to do something. Other than that they absolutely do nothing constructive!

The tragedy is not that they are going around and banging “the moles”, the tragedy is: They think that they are servants of God!

They believe with all their hearts that they are with God and serving God by “banging” others.

As long as we are hurting others and what they’re trying to do, we are not of God. We may not agree with what they do and say but “Whac-ing” them is not the way to do it. Listen what the Bible says:

“ So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.” (Ephesians 4:11-13)

There is no “Whac-A-Mole” ministry in God’s Kingdom! There is none! If we are not part of the encouraging and loving group of the body, we should keep our criticism, evaluation, analysis and judgments to ourselves.

After all, nobody in the right mind takes our criticism, analysis, evaluation and judgment to heart unless we first show love, respect and acceptance. We have to first build healthy and loving relationship with the person before we correct and criticize them. We are just wasting our precious time and energy to try to correct others without loving and respecting them because we and our opinions and advice will totally mean nothing for them. They will reject them all immediately!

Yes, Jesus rebuked those who came against him, called them “broods of vipers, whitewashed tombs” (Matthew 23) but He said it with all the love in Him; knowing that He came to die for them too! We can’t copy that and try to apply in our lives.

Always let’s remember this: There is no a ministry called “Whac-A-Mole.” When we feel like we need to reproof, rebuke, criticize, correct and evaluate others and their work, we have to remind ourselves that we first need to build a loving relationship with them and know them personally. Once we know them personally and develop love for them, we can voice our opinion. And guess what, once we build that loving relationship, they take every word which comes out of our mouth as if it comes directly from God because they know that we love them; they know that we speak out of love.

Until we develop love for them, it is better to use our precious time and energy for something useful and beneficial than “Whac-ing” someone.

Sure, “Whac-A-Mole” kind of game can guarantee a politician to win an election but we who are born into the Kingdom of God are not politicians. We are people of God who are redeemed by the precious blood of Jesus Christ to run the race that is marked out for us.

Instead of “Whac-ing” each other’s head and hurt Jesus, let’s hold each other’s hand and encourage, correct, reproof and build each other in love so that we glorify our God and show to this dark world who Jesus is.

Jesus said, “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” John 13:34-35

Until we know how to love each other, the world thinks that we belong to it, and we won’t blame it for thinking that because it has some truth.

The Bible says, “Be on your guard; stand firm in the faith; be courageous; be strong. Do everything in love.” 1 Corinthians 16:13-14

So, let’s remember this: When we want to criticize others, let’s ask ourselves this question, “Do I love these people? Do I care for them and their work?”

If the answer is “No,” let’s keep our peace to ourselves. Let’s wait until we first develop love and care for them. After that if we find a reason to reproof and correct them, we will do it out of love and care which is the only way to build and edify the Body of Christ. ///