Sometimes I complain too!

     I haven't by any means cornered the market on complaining.  While we are a world of whiners, we often disguise our whining and complaining so that it won't seem like we are doing what we shouldn't do.  I'm not talking about the persistent widow who kept petitioning the king for judgment on her claim until he finally relented just to shut her up.  Nor am I talking about your child (or adult) who won't eat their vegetables.  I'm talking about the complaining that leads to envy, jealousy, anger, impatience, and obviously sin.  Not complaining is not the opposite of complaining.  Peace and contentment is the opposite of complaining.  We find the recipe for peace and contentment in the Sermon on the Mount and just about every book in the Bible.  We would do well to read and re-read this passage and other related passages in order to have our daily inoculation against complaining and whining. 
     With discontent and impatience ever present in various events and relationships of our lives it's no surprise that I too am vulnerable (that's an understatement).  Yesterday I was heading home and was stuck in stopped traffic on a two lane roadway while construction workers worked.  At the mercy of the flagman I waited.  There were about 20 cars and trucks in front of me.  Slowly the people in front of me began to turn around and leave the way they had come.  Finally I was 3 in line for the flagman who magically decided that now was the time to let us drive on.  Once the impatient who were out of personal peace had moved on there was plenty of reason for my patience and peace.  Nothing should be of such an importance to us that that thing causes us to choose impatience and discontent.  Complaining only worsens the situation or relationship.
     So what does the Christian do when commanded to complain?  Yes, we are commanded to complain.  Scripture tells us to "bring our complaints to the Lord."  When we do so and LEAVE them there; the world around us begins to transform.  Where once there was discontentment and impatience now we find ourselves surrounded by the peace of God that passes all understanding in spite of the circumstances we find ourselves engulfed with.  That release of the issue (truly and not temporary) brings about an empty plate on which God places a feast of patience and peace.  No complaints there.  That doesn't mean that we take our complaints to the pastor or other Christian people.  Often these complaints are nothing but a means of passing on gossip.  Certainly we cannot become better people by trying to put others in a worse light.  Why?  Because except for the grace of God we are all worse than we think. 
     The Bible tells us to make a habit of being able to give a positive testimony of what God has done and is doing and will do in our lives.  Complaining to anyone except God doesn't do any good.  As a past supervisor I instructed those whom I was supervising that they could always come to me with any problem.  My only requirement was that when they came with the problem they also needed to bring 3 possible solutions.  I found that very few people I supervised brought any problems to me.  By the time they came up with 3 possible solutions they had usually solved the problem.  What if we applied that to our world?  Suppose we had to come up with 3 possible solutions before we brought the complaint to God?  Many of us would drop our complaint and get on with life.  Yet, sometimes I still complain.  God forgive me.