“Does my life testify to my belief in the power of complaint
or the power of Christ?”
(so this took me a while but here's my first reflections on the book)
It’s so easy to complain. Sometimes complaint gets things
done – like perhaps in customer service – but even then, there are no
guarantees. People fail.
By complaining about my life and circumstances I am either placing confidence in myself – my
own ability to make something of my life - which then implies that I’ve failed at
that already. Or I’m placing my confidence
in people or “the system” or society which will always be flawed. And
where will that complaint get me ultimately?
Nowhere, really.
Because it is all fallible, this world, its people, their futile
efforts to make it all a better place.
And then, when I get nowhere, I complain into the air… and
ultimately about or to God.
He has failed me. Why are things not happening the way I planned,
the way I prayed? Why does disappointment settle so heavily in my heart and mind? Why?
And where does complaining to God get me?
Again. Nowhere.
Don’t get me wrong, he wants to hear our prayers and he
listens and has compassion when we are confused and upset and even when we
question things.
But beyond that, where is my confidence going to find a
solid place to stand if complaint is all I ever fall back on? Where will that
leave me, really?
There is more to what I experience to be disappointment in my
life.
Question – has God ever really failed you? Has God ever
failed me?
I do feel that sometimes.
I don’t understand him, so I dismiss him and his way of
doing things.
But if he understands me, then isn’t that enough?
If he has miraculously proved Himself faithful to me in the
past, then isn’t that enough, to hope for good things to come? Because he is the
same, yesterday, today and forever?
Maybe it’s about time I start trying something new.
Complaint has gotten me nowhere.
Christ. I have nothing to lose, except myself – in his
kindness and faithfulness and redemptive power.
“Jesus' blood never failed me yet”
That is enough.
Christ is enough.
He will see me through. Always has. Always will.
