Grumbling, Bumbling, Stumbling…

Do everything without complaining or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like stars in the universe as you hold out the word of life (Philippians 2:14-16).

Despite my fond memories of college and how much fun I had, I sure spent a lot of time being unhappy. I can remember days of moping around campus, sitting around the apartment stewing and thinking up a lot of dumb, desperate measures to change things. Said dumb, desperate measures never ended up successful and then I got even more frustrated. I followed the pattern of grumbling, bumbling, stumbling. I grumbled, which lead me into a bad mindset, which caused me to bumble through my day-to-day living, which finally led to me stumble with God due to my lack of faith in His goodness.

So what was the root problem? Discontentment, I suppose — not being happy with what I had and trying to work with what I had, instead thinking the grass was greener on the other side of the dorm, etc. Basically, I was a living, breathing, walking complaint. The more I focused on my complaints, the worse it became because I was only focusing on my problems.

Since God warns us about complaining, He must have a reason for it. I’m not talking about letting off some steam and then proceeding constructively. I’m talking about holding on to the complaints, rehearsing them in one’s head over and over and letting them become destructive. I don’t have this; I don’t have that; things aren’t going the way I want… What does God think of such claims when He promises to give us all that we need, has given us salvation through Christ, is working all things out for our good and hears and answers all of our prayers even when we don’t think He is listening?

Thank God Christ didn’t complain on His way to the cross, and thank God Christ’s sacrifice washes away all of the sin of our complaints. Don’t get consumed by a complaining attitude. A complaining attitude will never be satisfied and will always actively look for more to complain about. Instead, look to Christ. Through Him we can learn to be content in all things.