I Can’t Complain

Posted by Kevin Hammond on Jun 7, 2011 in Daily Bread | 4 comments

If you’ve ever been to one of our monthly Texas Hold Em events at CCC, you’ve probably noticed by the music I play in the background that I have a special affinity for ‘70’s music (the best decade of music ev-er…). Which is how I again encountered the lyrics from Joe Walsh’s “Life’s Been Good” –

I can’t complain
but sometimes I still do.
Life’s been good to me so far.

That plucked a nerve in me. Why do I complain so easily, when in fact – I should be striving to hold my tongue?

Each one of us is a part of the spiritual body of believers at CCC. I love how we share in each other’s joys together as a community. I love how we share together in each other’s tough circumstances, as well. We love as though we truly understand that “all things work together for good!”

Ten-year-old Sarah says, “God put us in particular circumstances for a reason. Everything God does is for a reason. A lot of bad things can come together to make one big, good thing. Like when you make a cake, everything you put in it is not always going to be good by itself.”

Ever notice that a universal ingredient for cakes involves using raw eggs? Ever try to eat a raw egg all by itself? If I spend my energies complaining about the circumstances that God has placed me in, I just might miss out on the delicious cake He’s creating out of the raw eggs in my life.

When I think of complainers in the Bible, I’m quick to think of the Israelites. God delivered them from slavery in Egypt, and it was His plan to bring them into ‘a land of milk and honey’. But they angered God with their constant complaining. Even though they had seen God miraculously part the Red Sea and then “un-part” it to destroy Egypt’s pursuing elite troops. Even though they had received manna from Heaven. Even though He was visibly leading them with a cloudy pillar by day and a pillar of fire by night.

As a direct result of their incessant complaining and disbelief, the Israelites ended up wandering in the desert for 40 years until the next two generations were raised up to take their dying-off places. None who were originally set free were around to reap the rewards they would have received had they maintained a steadfast-non-complaining-belief that God would provide their needs.

With two notable exceptions: Joshua and Caleb, the “spies” who brought back a positive report about God’s Promised Land.

There are giants to conquer in the land of God’s abundance. Stay positive, because perhaps one of the biggest giants to conquer is the one of complaining about circumstances.