Don’t Complain, Be Joyous Where The Lord Provides For You To Be!

Word-Of-The-Day: ‘All things are wearisome, more than one can say. The eye never has enough of seeing, nor the ear its fill of hearing.’ (Ecclesiastes 1:8); ‘<Paul said,> ‘(12) I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. (13) I can do all this through Him who gives me strength.’ (Philippians 4:12-13)

We tend to complain a lot about our weather. In the Florida summertime, we complain it’s too hot and muggy (and as I get older, I admit I have joined the choir). When it’s the rainy season, we complain it rains too much; when it’s the dry season we complain there’s no rain. In January/February, we may complain about those times the temperatures drop in 50s for highs and the 30s for lows, and want our warm temperatures back – the same ones we initially complained about. It’s like the bear who complains the porridge is too hot or too cold, there’s a very thin line for him to find it is just right to eat. (Very thin.)

We complain when things don’t change and it gets boring, and then complain when they do change and our routines are knocked out of kilter. All of us have our moments when we, in our sinful human nature, become discontent with the same old stuff.  Then, when things do change we start complaining about the changes and are unsatisfied with them.  Solomon wrote about these feelings in Ecclesiastes 1, where ‘everything is meaningless’, or where nothing can bring contentment. 

Thus we complain about our situation; we hunger for something new to eat, but then say ‘I don’t like that’, or we wish for cool weather and then say ‘I wish it would be warmer’.  We live for new experiences, but then find issues when we start experiencing them.  The great theologian (ok, humorist) Erma Bombeck once wrote a book entitled, ‘The Grass Is Always Greener Over The Septic Tank’; we want change, to go elsewhere or to do something else, and we find when we get ‘it’ (whatever ‘it’ is), ‘it’ is not as satisfying as what we thought it would be.  Having is often less desirable than the desire we had before we got ‘it’. 

But Paul found that in Jesus, we can find contentment regardless of circumstance.  His life changed from being a rock star Pharisee of his day to one of repudiation from his old colleagues, and found himself persecuted, imprisoned, impoverished, and eventually executed for his Faith in Christ.  His contentment in any situation Paul found himself in was the knowledge that the Lord provides; the Lord will provide the circumstance to eat or to hunger, to become exhausted or to sleep, to be free or confined. 

The times of confinement or persecution were blessings that allowed Paul to celebrate Jesus for those holding him in captivity, and allowed him to appreciate those times he was free.  Paul was thankful to go hungry so that he could be blessed when the Lord provided him with food.  Jesus allowed Paul to be even-keeled, something he did not portray as the ‘Pharisee’s Pharisee’ and the persecutor before his Damascus Road moment in Acts 9.  What Paul learned was that contentment was having Faith that God is in control, and through Jesus’ Lordship and Salvation we no longer need to worry about that which is out of our control.  Our strength is not internal but in the Spirit who guides us.

So don’t complain about the cold or the heat; know that the Lord has provided these things.  The Lord has provided you to live where you are at and for you to be content wherever or whatever situation you find yourself in.  Know that you are not alone, that the Lord loves you and that you have a family of fellow Faithful believers who love you, as well.  Most importantly, have the contentment that the Lord, regardless of situation, provides!