A Complaint about Grumbling
We were just at the Servant Team Retreat and were really blessed by some great teachings and fellowship centered on the joy that is found in the Lord. I for one was humbled by it all. What an awesome God we have! After I got home from the ST Retreat I watched the end of the Cavs game… and it was cool to see them win. But, then Katie and I caught the last 1/3 of The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe. What a contrast: the glory of the Cavs on their magnificent dominance of Detroit vs the glory that can only come from Aslan (the Christ figure) choosing to lay his life down for Edward, unbeknownst to all … the secret magic (ala John 10:18) that no one understood, but now has been revealed. Now, I love the Cavs and am rooting for them… but it falls way short of that which Christ has done for us.
Now back to joy, sort of. One of the passages discussed was Phil 2 and perhaps the greatest joy-killers of them all: grumbling and disputing (vs 14). Mostly Dennis talked about grumbling… which was just as well for me because though I put on an air of contentment, the fact is there is much restlessness in me below the surface. Things need to change or move quicker or be a certain way – or else I’m not happy! (For example, I wish people would just change and make the right decisions or be different, I want this Akron professor thing to be done yesterday …). One of the points Dennis made in reference to one who despairs over life was that he is very insulting to God… “all these complaints are saying what God has done is not good enough”. I may not be that depressed, but I’m certainly often not content with myself and my life. The way I am, what I have been given, the people around me are not good enough – how insulting that is! God doesn’t know what He’s doing? That’s silly, and yet it’s easy to start viewing things that way disguised by niceness.
So, tonight that got me to thinking … my complaint about grumbling is that if our grumblings and disputes which are directly or indirectly aimed at God are insulting to Him, and we actually come to grips with that (admit it) – what are we to do with the guilt?
Perhaps that is why we are to “work out our salvation with fear and trembling” (vs 12). There needs to be a healthy realization and admission of my sinful rebellion which should result in some humility before God who is working in you to give “you the desire to obey him and the power to do what pleases him” (vs 13 – NLT). There’s no real guilt, or rather guilt trip, in that – that’s just the way it is. God’s cool with that, so should I. Let Him do His work. “Fear and trembling” enables me to get out of His way by not being so discontent with my petty or even not so petty complaints because the fact is I’d be in way worse shape without Him. And then I can be thankful and joyful for who He is and what He’s done. The result then is that we are “lights in the world” to a “crooked and perverse generation” (vs 15) – which is pretty cool, because then others can see Christ’s light shine through me/us.