Except we do. We always manage to find something to complain about.
In the last month, God has been convicting me and speaking to me about my complaining, or rather the reason behind my complaining- my lack of contentment in Him. That isn't to say that a relationship with God does not bring contentment, it does, and it's a contentment that the world cannot offer us. And that is exactly the problem.
When I take my eyes off the Author and Perfector of my faith, in whom I find my hope and my contentment, and instead focus on my life and my circumstances, I'm going to be disappointed, and I'm going to be disappointed for two reasons:
1) This world will never, and was never designed to bring me contentment. In its current imperfect state, inhabited by imperfect people, this world will always let us down; there will always be something we can find to complain about.
2) My heart will never, and was never designed to find contenment by living in this world. Even if it were perfect and my life were perfect, because of the imperfection and sinful nature of my own heart, I would still come up with something to complain about.
The thing is, our life and its circumstances will always offer us plenty of things we could complain about, and unfortunately our hearts just lap up the opportunity to have a good old whinge (that's your Scottish word for the day, it's kind of in between complaining and whining). I don't know so much about men, but us women (generally! and without the transforming power of the Holy Spirit in our lives) just love to have a good whinge together and complain about what's going on in our lives, it's like our "factory setting" to find things to complain about!
However, the whingey life is not a happy one, and it's not the life God wants for His children. We were created to have divine fellowship with the Creator and that realtionship is the only thing that will bring us real contentment in this life; experiencing the supernatural peace that comes from totally trusting in and depending on Him, instead of the constant disappointment and discouragement that comes from putting our hope in the things of this world:
Eternal Perspective OR Earthly Perspective (2 Corinthians 4:18)
Friendship with God OR Friendship with the World (James 4:4)
Life OR Death (Deuteronomy 30:15-20)
It all comes down to the same thing: when we choose God, to delight ourselves in Him and live for Him with complete abandon, obeying His commandments and serving Him unconditionally, we are choosing LIFE- and I'm not talking about simply going to heaven after we die physically, I'm talking about the abundant life that Jesus came to give us (John 10:10).
However, if our hearts "turn away" (Deuteronomy 30:17) from God and we find ourselves distracted by the things of this world, even the most simple and mundane things, investing our time in energy in them instead of in our realtionship with God (i.e creating idols for ourselves - and YES that is just how easy it is) then we will find ourselves discontent, disappointed and discouraged: we perish (v18).
Complaining, in and of itself, is not the problem. It is more a symptom of the discontentment that comes when our hearts become distracted from loving God and simply living for Christ, and instead of keeping our eyes fixed on Him we begin to focus on our lives and our problems, the things we would change if we could and wandering hopelessly in the Land of "If Only..."
Living in Ecuador, I could come up with lots of "reasonable" complaints: I'm very far away from my family, friends and church in Scotland, I'm having to not only learn how to be a wife and take care of a house but I'm having to do it in another culture and another language too, I don't like getting honked and whistled at by strangers just because I'm white, blonde (by ecaudorian standards) and have green eyes, I don't like having my phone and purse stolen on a crowded bus, I don't like being squished up against strangers in a bus that so full that literally no more people can fit in, or being in a supermarket or international chain and be told that they've run out of change... you get the idea. However, if I focus on these things and spend all my emotion and energy on wishing that things were different, I'm going to be miserable- being honest, I sometimes have been these last few months. But not matter where I live, that is not the attitude to have.
Wherever I am, my citizenship is in Heaven (Philippians 3:20) and God is my dwelling place (Psalm 90:1), and it is in knowing and being confident in that, that I find my contentment; taking the difficult or undesirable circumstances of my life and giving them to the Lord, depending on Him and trusting that He will use them for His purposes and His glory, and learning to "give thanks in all circumstances" (1 Thessalonians 5:18). Simply put: choosing God.
Whenever something frustrating happens, whenever I feel sad, I have the choice to dwell on that and complain and feel sorry for myself OR to choose God, to give it to Him and remind myself that nothing can rob me of the eternal blessings that are mine in Christ Jesus (Ephesians 1:3) and be content in Him.
So, what if the next time somebody asks us how we are and we reply "Can't complain!", what if we were so satisfied in Christ that it was really true?
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