Day 5 - More Gratitude, Less Complaining
Rejoice always and delight in your faith; be unceasing and persistent in prayer; in every situation [no matter what the circumstances] be thankful and continually give thanks to God; for this is the will of God for you in Christ Jesus. 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18
People love to complain. I guess we find some sort of solace in letting people know how miserable we are. Well, I hate to break it to you, but complaining accomplishes little to nothing – for us, for others, or for God. But for those of us with chronic illnesses, it’s hard not to complain sometimes. Some of us compensate by pretending that we are great rather than being honest (which we think comes off as complaining). Good news though – you can be honest and still be a joyful light to the world. You can share your pain with others without complaining about it, and you certainly can be happy even if you have issues you could complain about.
Chronic illnesses – especially those that cause physical pain – are breeding grounds for complaining. It’s hard not to complain when you’re on your 150th straight day of pain (am I the only one who counts the days?). I’ve learned that describing pain and complaining about pain are two different things. In other words, saying “I have a lot of pain today” is different than “Ugh this sucks so much, I’m sick of this and I don’t deserve this.” Now don’t get it twisted, we’re all allowed our “this sucks, I’m tired, I don’t deserve this” moments; but we can’t stay there. We simply have too many blessings and positives to be in a constant state of grumbling.
What a slap in the face it is to God when we focus on the bad and none of the good. One of my favorite Bible verses is found in Job 2:10b: “shall we receive only pleasant things from the hand of God and never anything unpleasant?” No one is exempt from experiencing trouble and pain in this world. Most of the time, we are not in control of what happens to us; we only control our reactions and attitudes towards our situations.
It’s amazing to me how many people are serial complainers. Even more amazing is how many of them are Christians. We all know someone who finds everything and anything to complain about. They’re exhausting to be around, and we don’t want to be like them. Now, I understand that life is hard, and some people experience very horrific situations. This is not to discredit those realities. However, Jesus overcame the world so that we can be happy, despite our troubles (John 16:33). He wants us to be happy, and He wants us to understand that our suffering is a byproduct of His perfecting us. Once we accept our condition, get over our pity parties, and answer the call, we can begin to see the purpose behind our pain. Once we understand this purpose, we no longer consider our suffering something to complain about, rather, it’s a mechanism for our growth and glorification of God.