A little candor; recently, my eldest told me, “Dad, don’t take this the wrong way, but I think you complain too much!” I’ll admit, my first thought was to defend myself! “I’m not complaining! There’s just a bunch of idiots on the road!” And really, who would argue with me?! I guess it depends on where you live, but I digress. The point is that in thinking it through, and asking/letting the Lord speak to me, it became apparent that, he was right! I do complain too much.

Most of us in the United States have just enjoyed the Thanksgiving holiday. Some consider this merely Turkey Day, some hate it (I don’t consider this view worthy of going into), and some take steps to keep it as it was originally intended, a day to give thanks to God for His provision. (If you’d like to re-read President Lincoln’s statement regarding Thanksgiving, you can revisit that post at the following link: https://nerdylenses.com/2012/11/20/in-honor-of-thanksgiving/)

Consequently, this week has had me thinking, how thankful am I? Am I grateful for the things God has given me, or am I grumbling because they aren’t what I wanted? Or maybe, I’m not thankful, but I’m just trying to be less grumpy, hoping I’ll cure some favor with the Almighty and get what I really wanted!

That last statement is utterly absurd; it’s not that I don’t do that sometimes (after all, let’s be honest here), but it is absurd to think that anything I do can actual cure favor with the Almighty God! I am a fallen creature; I have been tainted by sin. Nothing I can do, in and of myself, is going to gain me favor with God Almighty! At the same time, I have accepted Jesus death in my place, His resurrection from the dead, and I have placed Him (and continue to confess my failure and place Him again) as Lord and Savior of my life. By this, the Bible tells me that I have died with Him and it is no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me. (Galatians 2:20). The only way I gain any favor with God is through Jesus, which means I can’t do anything; Jesus did it all, and I am to follow Him, not try to do something I think is good, but to follow Him, doing what He says is good!

Ok. So, let’s agree that it’s absurd for me to try and cure favor with God. Am I grateful and thankful or grumbling? This becomes a sticky point. On one hand, no one should want to call good as evil or evil as good. And no one should want to be silent when he/she should speak up. Furthermore, if God calls you to speak, who am I that you should be silent?! Yet, for myself, I oft wonder if I am speaking because God wants to speak through me or because I want to be heard. I’d dare to say that it is likely more of the latter than the former. And here Jeremiah speaks to us, in Lamentations 3:26 (which appears to be the dead-center, if my math is correct, of a literary chiasm in Lamentations) proclaims “It is good that he waits silently For the salvation of the Lord.”

Silently. Silently? Silently! It is good that he waits silently…why?! Well, look at what we’re to be waiting for, the salvation of the Lord. The Lord wants me to call out to Him, bringing my thanks and praise, my confessions, and my needs before Him, even my aches and pains. This is not that. And there are times when we must speak up, but usually those times involve someone else’s needs or the defense of someone else. This situation is where I am uncomfortable, maybe even being persecuted, and I’m tempted to think God has forgotten me or doesn’t know (or care) what I need! Look at the rest of Lamentations, this is a book that expresses a lot of pain going on, a lot of discomfort; in fact, one might even say that Jeremiah doesn’t deserve any of what he has endured. Nonetheless, as God’s messenger and representative to the people, he is enduring these things as a means of proclaiming God’s message of judgment to the people of Israel who had not been obeying God. And yet, it is Jeremiah who says it’s good to wait silently.

Similarly, Jesus teaches us not to be too public about our prayer life in Matthew 5:5-6. He’s not prohibiting public prayer, but rather, He is cautioning us about putting on a show with our prayers. This dovetails with what Jeremiah is saying about waiting silently. It is not that I don’t pray, but I let that conversation be between me and God, lest I give my enemy (remember, our battle isn’t against flesh and blood but against spiritual forces of wickedness, Ephesian 6:12) some encouragement that he/she is getting to me. And again, it’s not some prescriptive, legalistic ruling that if you happen to complain, God is going to ignore you now or rage against you. NO! It is a reminder that we are to trust in Him and not ourselves, trust in His amazing, Divine, perfect provision, rather than what I think I need (or deserve) at a given moment.

So, when I come to Paul’s statement in Philippians 2, where he encourages us to “do all things without grumbling or disputing”, I can see it in the light of Philippians 2, where Paul encourages us to be selfless, to be humble, like Christ; taking our comfort in and having fellowship with the Holy Spirit, and rejoicing, even in trials, because Jesus suffered for us, and now we can suffer for Him. And when I link this all with Lamentations 3:26, I see that this is not Paul saying “enjoy the pain!” Rather, Jeremiah echoes up through Paul and confirms that “The Lord is good to those who wait for Him, To the person who seeks Him.” (Lamentations 3:25) God isn’t asking us to endure to see how much we can take, nor is He cruelly inflicting pain, but rather, He is asking us to trust that not only does He have a plan, but He has provision for us, a way of escape (1 Corinthians 10:13), and He has walked in all sufferings as we do. Bodily pain from age, over-exertion, or torture? Jesus has endured it. Anguish over the death of a loved one? Jesus has endured it. Grief from divorce or some other rejection? Jesus has endured it (yes, Jesus was not married, but read Hosea, and you’ll see the anguish God expresses at Israel’s harlotry). I could go on, and indeed, if someone needs me to, I am happy to provide additional examples (just ask in the comments). Jesus has walked in our steps, and even moreso, as Maximus the Confessor identifies in Disputations with Pyrrhus, Paragraph 35, “but in a mode which surpasseth us, in other words, voluntarily.” Put more plainly, we endure these things because they occur to us, but Jesus could have walked away, escaped, or otherwise ended any such things that came to Him, but He voluntarily endured them. We hurt because we age; He chose to age. We hurt because we people reject us; He allowed others to reject Him. And we ache because people pass on and we can’t be with them; He chose to endure loss!

In conclusion, this year, I choose to be thankful and grateful. I’m still prone to grumbling and complaining, but I’m choosing to fight my flesh and be thankful. Scripture makes it clear that we serve a good and mighty God provides well for us and who has endured the sufferings we endure. So, what do I have to complain about? Nothing of consequence! I can let God know my concerns, my pains, and my troubles, but the world doesn’t need to know how frustrated I am that some driver just pulled out in front of me; I may still honk so they’re aware they almost caused an accident, but maybe I won’t. The world doesn’t need to know how frustrated I am about the price of XYZ. They need to see the peace that surpasses all understanding because my God provides enough for me!

We can have reasonable discussions about the pains of our present world, but we should be cautious that we don’t allow our discussions to turn into grumblings, as if the Almighty isn’t on His Throne. We can express our needs, such as if someone is in financial need, but we should not act as though God hasn’t or won’t provide. It is a delicate balance, but it is a worthy balance; God is able to do far more than we can think or ask (Ephesians 3:20). Hence, it is our honor to restrain ourselves and fight against our flesh’s attempts to act like He is otherwise!

Godspeed – 1 Corinthians 15:10