Feedback

If you've been in medical or dental training for any length of time, you are likely very familiar with the term "feedback."  If you're an upper-level resident, fellow, or attending, you've probably attended seminars on how to give feedback, with silly examples like "Feedback Fridays" and, my personal favorite, "The Feedback Sandwich", with a little bit of negative surrounded by fluffy positivity to cushion the criticism.  The word feedback itself makes my skin crawl, to be honest.  It implies that I've done something wrong, that something needs to be done differently, usually in the way or to the preference of the one giving the feedback.  Feedback can be positive, but when someone says, "I have some feedback for you," I've realized this is a nice way of saying, "Let's talk about what you did wrong."

Feedback is also a physiologic phenomenon.  Remember the positive and negative feedback loops in physiology class?  How hormones act on organs and the organ sends a signal back to make a change indicating it's received the signal?  How positive feedback increases the target's function and negative feedback inhibits it?  At least that's how I remember it...

And then it comes to the matter of our hearts.  From where do we, as Christians, get spiritual feedback?  There's no such thing as Feedback Fridays (at least in my theology...), but it is a continual, instantaneous process.  The Holy Spirit brings conviction through times of prayer, worship, reading the Bible, and even through other Believers.  That prick in your heart...Was that the right thing to do or say, the right way to react?  Was that conversation necessary?  Why didn't you pray for that patient or coworker?  Let's readjust your focus.  It's--thankfully--not a feedback sandwich--the hope and gentleness offered in our salvation is a long-standing, permanent offer, no fluff or pretense about it, no having to second-guess my position or status or role as a child of God.  We've got God's love in the form of a Savior sacrificed the cross, no matter what.  But we need to stay sensitive to His feedback (as much as I'd prefer a different word such as 'conviction' or 'discipline'), and change our lives accordingly, knowing there may be eternal value (for me and others) as I respond to the Holy Spirit's prompting.

I Timothy 4:8, 15-16: For physical training is of some value, but godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come...Be diligent in these matters; give yourself wholly to them, so that everyone may see your progress.  Watch your life and doctrine closely. Persevere in them, because if you do, you will save both yourself and your hearers.