Complaints

Yesterday was the last day for complaints. I told my nurse at a doctor's visit this week that we all love to complain, but it doesn't really do us much good. As a consumer your complaint might help with a product you've purchased that doesn't deliver as promised, but complaints about life don't change anything. We all have to live with the lot we were given and make the best out of it. Complaining doesn't change one thing about tomorrow.

We complain about our aches and pains, our losses, our inabilities, our sicknesses, or whatever ails us. We complain about not having enough or failing to be successful in some venture, but no complaint will change the outcome. What happened yesterday may affect tomorrow, but complaining about it never will stop it from happening.

We have all complained about the wheres and whys of episodes that have affected us. We have questioned God about illness, divorce, the loss of a loved one, tragedies that have affected us, and many other things and never received an answer. We have tried to legitimize why they happened and then tried to figure out why God allowed it. There really is no simple solution or answer. It rains on the just and the unjust. Just because you're a Christian doesn't mean you'll have all the answers or ever stop complaining about these events in your life.

In fact, Ecclesiastes 3 tells us there is a time for everything. The wise man, under the direction of God, prepared us for this one fact-life isn't easy. There is a season for everything that we go thru. Yes, even a season of complaining. But God wants us to discipline ourselves not to live a life of complaints. In fact, what happened yesterday can't be undone. It happened, so we have a choice. Either get over it and move forward, or sit there and stew over it until it robs you of your joy.

As I said early complaining about life doesn't get you much. Maybe the occasional letting off some steam, but not much more. On the other hand, praising the Lord, even in the midst of it all, brings you closed to Him and eases some of the pain. So we have a choice-fuss about yesterday or trust and live today. Which one will you choose?