I am finishing up the month of February focusing on our spiritual hearts. There are five risk factors contained in the Scriptures that we need to heed. Yesterday it was a warning against hardening our hearts before the LORD (often a failure to remember all that God has done for us.)
Today, it’s guarding against developing a complaining, grumbling, and murmuring spirit. Multiple times in the scriptures we are warned about this. “Do everything without grumbling ….” [Philippians 2:14, also Exodus 16:3, John 6:43]
Complaining can take the form of fault-finding, murmuring, griping, and grumbling. It can also take the form of taking offense and entitlement. Complaining is a major occupation of our culture. As a society we are much more focused on fault-finding than virtue-finding. We love to complain.
I remember an incident from a few years ago. Our family visited a popular restaurant on a very busy holiday. Our waitress was a delight. She stayed attentive to our needs, updated us on timing of meal delivery, and never seemed “rushed” when it was apparent there was every reason to be. I was so impressed I praised her by name to the restaurant company in an email.
A few weeks later I got a letter and a special “manager’s gift card” in the mail for $50. When we redeemed it at another meal, a manager quickly came to our table and asked if our “service was better than last time.”
After some confusion and explanation, the manager said the company gave those special manager’s gift cards to the people who complained about their service or meal. He was shocked that someone actually sent in a praise report.
That is a sad commentary on our society. It is even more sad (and risky to our spiritual hearts) when we allow that attitude to invade our spiritual walk.
