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No Grumbling or Complaining

 Do everything without grumbling or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure, “children of God without fault in a warped and crooked generation.” Then you will shine among them like stars in the sky as you hold firmly to the word of life. And then I will be able to boast on the day of Christ that I did not run or labor in vain. (Philippians 2:14-16”)

“OK, God, get me moving…” There are mornings when I grumble as I get out of bed. I sound like someone trying to start a motor that just won’t catch. “Help, God. Left…right…hup, two, three, four.” Grumble, grumble, grumble. I am working on doing this less, but there are body parts that grumble at me, and sometimes it helps if I grumble back. And as my body and mind start, I get into gear and I don’t think I grumble, or at least not as much.

Then, of course, there is the whining. Paul didn’t mention whining, but I suspect it’s a form of arguing, or flat-out rebellion. “I caa – aan’t.” We’re not even talking one-syllable. “I don’wannna.” Somehow, it tends to be on a descending scale.

I’m not sure the first paragraph is grumbling. I’m pretty sure the second is. After all, the first paragraph doesn’t say “NO!”; the second does. My first point, then, is that grumbling might not sound like what we think of as grumbling. I’ll grant that when the Israelites grumbled, they tended to grumble about God and about Moses (and his leadership team).  I convince myself that I’m grumbling about me. Sometimes, I even have a “Your daughter” talk with God. I tell myself I’m siding with God against myself, but the point is for Him to do something about me, and why hasn’t He? Then there’s the fact that one of the things that convinces me that I’m not the one telling me to do something is that my response to what God has wanted me to do has generally been, “No, no, no, no, no, no, no, oh, OK.”

But we’re not told not to grumble at God. We’re told not to grumble, period. We’re not to grumble, and we are to do “everything” without that grumbling. That doesn’t mean we’re to do everything we’re told to do, or even everything we want to do. Abram argued with God about Sodom and Gomorrah. Joseph told his master’s wife, “No,” repeatedly. Daniel and his three friends both told their master, “No.” So did Mordecai. Amos complained to God about the prophecy God gave him. And it’s appropriate today to mention that Martin Luther King, Jr. taught his followers to say, “No” without grumbling. They were to break unjust laws and accept the consequences just as Daniel and his three friends did. “Not grumbling or  complaining” doesn’t mean being codependent. It doesn’t mean doing nothing. It does mean praying about how God would have us deal with the situation. 

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