The World is overflowing with complainers

Ok, I realize that this post is really just contributing to the problem, but listening to people complain all the time can get on your nerves! If half of the energy spent on complaining about things was spent on doing something about whatever it is they are complaining about, a lot more would get done, and whole lot less complaining would take place.

There are a few forums that I will visit from time to time. Most of the time there is constructive conversations taking place, or general Q&A. But often there are those who just want to complain. To be honest I will usually just tune people like that out because they usually don't want to fix it, they just want to complain about it.

My beloved and I know a family that is struggling to make ends meet. When ever we see them, no matter what we are talking about, the conversation invariably turns to them having a hard time. The husband works in a job that is partly seasonal/cyclical. That is, there are boon times where overtime is plentiful, and times when the factory just needs to lay about half the work force off for about four weeks until the orders pick up. Now, the company will try and lay off half for two weeks, and then the other half for two weeks so that no one family gets hit harder than another. BUT, this family hardly takes the company up on the overtime (it's totally voluntary), and instead of saving up for the lean month - or possibly looking for a temporary handyman type of job - the husband just sits at home. Now, there are families out there that are trying and still not making it - but when the opportunity is there, but not taken advantage of, I have very little sympathy.

I have also noticed that when people have relational problems they would rather talk to someone other than the one that they are having the issue with. Instead of trying to work/figure out what is wrong between the two things get distorted and exaggerated to the point it becomes gossip.

I am a high school drop out, so I cannot really speak with a lot of authority on book learning (in my opinion), but one thing I did learn in school was that communication takes two, and that if the sender is not communicating with the receiver, communication is not taking place. This is a complicated process - especially between two human beings. Just because a speaker is talking to someone (it doesn't matter if it's one or a hundred), doesn't mean there is communication taking place. For communication to take place the sender (or speaker) has to convey they message in a clear format that is shared with the receiver (aka common language such as English) AND the receiver has to correctly understand that which is being conveyed. If the listener (or receiver) mis-understands the speaker, then communication is NOT taking place.

This spills over into our local churches as well. This is made even more complicated when the senior leadership speaks to the junior leadership, who speaks with the "lay" leadership, who then works with the individual (or family) who sits in the pews each Sunday. And we being fallen and sinful human beings will not always give those who we are speaking with (and this goes two ways) the amount of grace to possibly oversee things. We humans each have our own preferences. We prefer certain types of music, or preaching styles. We prefer certain traditions (or lack there of). We prefer a certain type of clothes, or time limits on the sermons that are given.

I am so sick of hearing people complain that I am getting upset when I hear it now. I now I am sinning because I am not bestowing the other person with grace to either just be a listening post for them, or some other form of help to them. Instead I am getting upset about the inconvenience being forced upon me. And what am I doing here but the very thing that I despise! *sigh*

If anyone is still reading this, I encourage you to take action. What is it that is bothering you? Take the time to not complain about it, but think about it. Bring it to the Lord, not to complain or even to ask Him to take it away from you. But ask for God to show it to you more clearly. Ask God if there is something that you can do about it. Is it a thorn to be 'suffered'? Is it something that is being used as a lesson in your life so that God may conform you more into the image of His Son? Is there something that you can do about it? Or is it something that God might be using to move you on to something else?

One more thing before I move on. Sometimes things are not always what they seem on the outside. Sometimes, just because something is not our preference, does not mean that it is a bad (or wrong) thing. Sometimes, it is just what it is.
Verse for today:
Job 40 : 6-9, ESV
Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind and said:

“Dress for action [1] like a man;
I will question you, and you make it known to me.
Will you even put me in the wrong?
Will you condemn me that you may be in the right?
Have you an arm like God,
and can you thunder with a voice like his?

*** I would encourage an in depth reading and meditation of the entire book of Job - and I include myself in that statement.