| Philippians 4:6 – “Don’t fret or worry. Instead of worrying, pray. Let petitions and praises shape your worries into prayers, letting God know your concerns.” |
Do you complain?
Most of us would prefer to say we don’t. But complaining is perhaps the most human thing there is.
We get out of bed and the joints crack, and we complain about getting old. We get in the car and grumble at the traffic. Servers hear it in restaurants. One establishment endured such sustained abuse that it shut down for a day just to breathe.
Mark Twain observed that everyone complains about the weather but no one does anything about it. That captures the real nature of complaining — it is far easier than action.
There are two remedies worth considering.
The first comes from Greg McKeown, who writes that complaining is like a flywheel. Once it gets going, it keeps going. Stop it, and it is hard to restart. His counsel: when you focus on what you lack, you lose what you have. When you focus on what you have, you find that what you lack begins to shrink. Gratitude is not merely a spiritual discipline — it is practical medicine for a grumbling soul.
The second is simpler still. If you can do something about a problem, do it. Action is the great antidote to complaining. And if nothing can be done, complaining about it is fruitless. Let it go.
Paul had every reason to complain. Imprisoned. Unjustly accused. Isolated. Instead, he offered the Philippians a different path:
“Don’t fret or worry. Instead of worrying, pray. Let petitions and praises shape your worries into prayers, letting God know your concerns.” (Philippians 4:6, The Message)
In that way, we both act on what we can and remember how much God has already given us.
Now — what is there left to complain about?
–Robert G. Taylor
robertgtaylor.com
