Prone to Complain

Come, thou Fount of every blessing, tune my heart to sing thy grace;  

 Streams of mercy, never ceasing, call for songs of loudest praise.

  Teach me some melodious sonnet, sung by flaming tongues above.

Praise the mount! I'm fixed upon it, mount of thy redeeming love.

(words-Robert Richardson, music- Wyeth's Repository of Sacred Music)

This is one of my favorite hymns.  Perhaps it's one of your favorites as well.
I was thinking about this hymn this morning, particularly a line in the third verse.  That line says, "prone to wander, Lord, I feel it.  Prone to leave the God I love."

The "prone to wander" line leads me to recall the time the Israelites spent wandering in the wilderness, after they had left Egypt and before they entered the Promised Land.   We're often "prone to criticize" the Israelites for their wanderings, yet we often "wander" as well, don't we?  We're not always prompt in our obedience to what the Lord tells us to do, which can leave us wandering pretty aimlessly through life.

But today as I have been thinking about that line from the hymn, I've been thinking we could rewrite the line as "prone to complain".    The Israelites complained a lot on their journey through the wilderness.  They complained about the food.  More accurately, they complained about the lack of all the good food they had enjoyed in Egypt.  (I guess they forgot the part about being slaves!)  They complained about the dust.  And about having no water.  Complain, complain, complain.

It's the American way, isn't it?  Complain about everything! We are a complaining people.  We complain about the weather.  And the traffic.  We complain about the time change.  When we don't get our way, we complain.  We complain about taxes.  And about politicians.

There's been a lot of complaining in that regard during this campaign season.  I've watched with interest recently as a particular candidate has complained that the rules are "unfair" to him.  The rules haven't changed, at least as far as I am aware, since the campaign began, so these are the same rules the candidate agreed to from the beginning.  However, now that the momentum seems to have shifted a bit away from him and toward another candidate, the rules have suddenly become "unfair".  And he complains.  Loudly.  And often.

Political candidates are not the only complainers.  We the people complain about all sorts of things.  The weather.  Politics.  The news media.  The government.  Anything and everything.

I know I find myself often doing that. Complaining instead of being grateful.  Shame on us. We're such whiners! Why is that?  Why are we such complainers?  Why do we spend so much time focusing on what's wrong with life and never focusing on what's right with life? Why are we never content, but always finding something else to complain about?  It's too hot.  It's too cold.  It rains too much.  It never rains.  And on and on we go.

We aren't born with a "contentment gene".  Contentment is a learned behavior.  Paul didn't say "I am content."  He said, " I have learned to be content." (Philippians 4:11 NASB)

He also said, "Do all things without grumbling."  (Philippians 2:14 NASB)

How do we learn to be content?  How do we learn to do all things without grumbling?

I confess I have done some grumbling lately.  Every time I go to physical therapy.  Every time I do my therapy exercises here at home.  And at all sorts of times in between. There it is again.  Grumbling.  Whining.  Complaining.

You probably do the same thing.  Maybe not about physical therapy.  But about something.  Or perhaps someone.

How do we get past that?  How do we learn to be content?  How do we learn not to grumble?

We learn that in the same way as we learn anything else.  By practice.  By repetition.  By effort.  By focus.  Focusing on the reasons we have to be content, to be grateful, rather than on the reasons we have for complaining.

Today might be a good day to start.  We often focus on gratitude in the month of November, as we celebrate the Thanksgiving holiday.  But do we really want to wait until November?  Do we really want to limit our good behavior, our gratefulness, our contentment, to only one month of the year? 

Why not start today?  Just do it.  Start focusing on all the reasons you have to be grateful.  Start focusing on all the things that are right in your world, rather than all the things that are wrong.  Make a conscious effort not to complain!  And if you catch yourself starting to complain or to whine or to grumble, just stop it!  Mid-sentence, if necessary!

To keep your thoughts focused in the right direction, if you haven't already, start a gratitude journal, listing all the things you have to be thankful for.  Every day, add at least one thing to your list.  Make a conscious effort not to complain.

It's a good beginning.  A good way to turn your focus away from complaining and toward learning contentment.

Why not begin learning today?

"I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content......In any and every circumstance I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need.  I can do all things through him who strengthens me."  (Philippians 4:11-13 ESV, emphasis mine)