A lot of people (including me) complain about life, and we shouldn't. Why did all my professors schedule a test for Monday? Why isn't there any food in the fridge? Why won't this girl like me? Why does my job take up so much of my life?
Be thankful.
In high school, I was an avid debater. For some odd reason, I loved researching topics like environmental law towards business and campaign finance reform. Yet, before every tournament, I became extremely afraid. One time, I got sick right before the big weekend. As my mom and I drove to the tournament at 5AM, I started complaining. I was sick. I had an awful continental breakfast. I slept for 5 hours. My shower was cold.
Mom said something I'll never forget. She had me open of her devotionals; I read a paraphrased compilation of scriptures. Amazingly, it met me right where I was at. "Why are you hungry? Why are sick? Why are you tired?" the text read. "Don't you know that the Lord is your strength?"
Humbled, all I could do was stop complaining.
Let's be honest here. For most of us, our lives are pretty decent! The fact that we have a job to complain about shows that we have a job! If our biggest problem is that a guy won't like us, it's time to grow up.
John Mark McMillan, possibly my favorite artist, wrote a song called Kiss Your Feet. In that song, he expands upon this idea.
And all my afflictionsThere are 140 million orphans in the world; there are 800 million people in the world who suffer from hunger and malnutrition; there are 14.8 million unemployed people in the United States alone.
There only light ones anyway
Isn't it time to stop worrying about our own half-decent lives and start focusing on the people who are really in need?
Be patient.
Watchmen Nee, an amazing Chinese-Christian author, wrote--
I was once staying a place in China with some twenty other brothers. There was inadequate provision for bathing in the home where we stayed, so we went for a daily plunge in the river. On one occasion a brother got cramp in his leg, and I suddenly saw he was sinking fast, so I motioned to another brother, who was an expert swimmer to hasten to his rescue. But to my astonishment, he made no move. Growing desperate I cried out, “Don’t you see the man is drowning?” and the other brothers, about as agitated as I was shouted vigorously too. But our good swimmer still did not move. Calm and collected, he remained just where he was, apparently postponing the unwelcome task. Meantime the voice of the poor drowning brother grew fainter and his efforts feebler. In my heart I said: “I hate that man! Think of his letting a brother drown before his very eyes and not going to the rescue!”
But when the man was actually sinking, with a few swift strokes the swimmer was at his side, and both were soon safely ashore. Nevertheless, when I got an opportunity, I aired my views. “I have never seen any Christian who loved his life quite as much as you do,” I said. “Think of the distress you would have saved that brother if you had considered yourself a little less and him a little more!” But the swimmer, as I soon discovered, knew his business better than I did.
“Had I gone earlier,” he said, “he would have clutched me so fast that both of us would have gone under. A drowning man cannot be saved until he is utterly exhausted and ceases to make the slightest effort to save himself.”
Recently, I heard a man say--"God may not come when we ask, but He always arrives on time."
Sometimes, when our lives are burdened with afflictions, we need to be prayerfully patient, waiting on the Lord because, let's be honest, He knows what He is doing, and if we complain, we are really saying that we know more than He does.
Job was in a similar situation. When Job lost his family, his wife, his land, his servants, and all of his possessions, he tried not to complain. After a long dialogue with his "friends," Job became very discouraged. Without wasting a second, the Lord "appeared out of the storm" and replied:
“Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation?
Tell me, if you understand.
Who marked off its dimensions? Surely you know!
Who stretched a measuring line across it? (Job 38:4-5)
In a way, the Lord's gives a laundry list of questions about His creation; he asks about the behemoth, the ostrich, the mountains, and the seas, yet Job cannot answer. Job does not know.
The only thing Job can say is: “I know that you can do all things."
When trouble arises and the oceans roar, may we be thankful for what God has given us, and be patient for His deliverance because in our weakness, He is made strong.
"For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, works for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory; while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen– for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal." 2 Cor. 4:17, 18
