Honestly, I’ve followed Notre Dame football since I was a kid, but I’m not a Charlie Weis fan. Weis, though, shared this very insightful thought in a recent Associated Press article on ESPN.com:

“If you sit there and try to be a vengeful person and be worried about every negative thing that people said, that really doesn’t get you anywhere. You don’t do something about it by going to a public forum and going tit for tat with somebody. What you have to do is go win more football games. Really, it’s the only way of answering it.”

The amazing thing is that in football or in church (or in anything else for that matter) you will always face negative talk. And, it’s not unusual for even the most successful organizations to experience vocal attacks and criticism. (Think Microsoft, Wal-Mart, New York Yankees, Willow Creek, etc.) Frankly, it’s when the negative talk stops that you should be worried. At that point, you’re probably not doing anything worthy of a critic’s time and attention. You’ve probably entered into the “zone of mediocrity.”

Coach Weis gave us a good reminder that it’s better to focus on the next victory on the field than the negative people in our lives.