Complaint dept

Yesterday, I almost lost it. Baileigh has been in a terrible routine of whining and complaining. Her sock is on backwards, waaaaaa! She can't turn the water on, uhhhhhhh! She can't clean up the whooooole playroom by herself! I've been trying to let her take on some more responsibilities herself, but her attempt around it is melting into complete distress. I asked her to clean her own face before we left for the store several times yesterday and when we got there, I opened the van door to see her still messy face and said, "Fine. You won't do it yourself? I'll do it for you." And I licked my fingers and smudged them all over her face. (I wonder where she gets her dramatics from? Ooops. LOL) Of course, she burst into hysterical tears while I tried to give her a lesson outside the grocery store about listening the first time and doing it without whining and complaining. An old man walked out of the store right in the middle of my finger-to-the-face disciplining and starting laughing at the top of his lungs! Finally, he got close to us and said to me (still laughing) "What did you do to her? Ahahahaha!" Great. There goes that attempt, I thought while giving him an akward, half-smile, half-areyoukiddingme kind of face.
           

But later that day, before bedtime, I suggested Dad read the story of Moses leading the Israelites out of Egypt. "Really exaggerate the complaining," I whispered to him. So he did. She listened with attention and excitement. Initially, the Israelites sang a song of praise to God for all He had done for them. They were dancing, celebrating, and shouting thanks like, "Who is like you among the gods, O Lord—glorious in holiness, awesome in splendor, performing great wonders?" and "With your unfailing love you lead the people you have redeemed. In your might, you guide them to your sacred home." (Exodus 15: 11,13) But the thankful attitude didn't stick around for long. They quickly starting complaining. They were thirsty with no water, but when they finally came to an oasis in the dessert, they declared the water was too bitter to drink. After being of out Egypt for about a month, they really upped the whining. “If only the Lord had killed us back in Egypt,” they moaned. “There we sat around pots filled with meat and ate all the bread we wanted. But now you have brought us into this wilderness to starve us all to death.” (Exodus 16:3) Mind you, back in Egypt, they were slaves! Not to mention, God had just performed unimaginable miracles in order to free His people. But within weeks, they were throwing a pity party for themselves, with their thankfulness far behind them, nowhere to be found. They went from telling everyone that God is leading and guiding them with His unfailing love, to asking Moses with attitude and testing God saying, "Is the Lord with us here or not?" (Exodus 17:7)

After reading the story, Doug asked Baileigh what's been going on. She said softly, "Well, Mom's not helping me with anything."
He said to her, "Did you eat today?"
"Yea."
"Mom made all of it.  Did you wear clothes today?"
"Yea."
"Mom made sure they were clean for you.  Do you have a made bed to sleep in tonight?"
"Yea."
"Mom puts it back together for you."

She got the point. She was so stuck on what she wasn't getting, that she had lost all gratefulness for what Mom had done and is still doing for her. Same with the Israelites toward God. Same with all of us toward God. How many times do we grumble and complain against Him? I know how it feels as a mom; how do you think it makes our Heavenly Father feel? Is your complaint department overflowing with quick remarks "Are you even here God?" "I was better off before!" "Why don't You care about me?" "You're not helping me!" We can test Him and argue with Him and complain against Him like the Israelites did thousands of years ago. We can whine and offend His works and unfailing love, like a 4-year-old against her mom. How quickly we can forget all He's done for us! Or we can choose to focus on gratefulness. And if you're really stuck, we can all start with the lesson "Did you breathe today? God gave that to you."

"Do everything without complaining and arguing..."

~Philippians 2:14

Booing Jesus

 Christianity sucks. 

Says who? Close to 97 percent of my generation does!

I have heard and read this statistic multiple times - just 3 percent of America's young people have a positive view of Christianity/Jesus. This is a pretty startling and upsetting statistic for me to see about my own generation, but I get it. There are all sorts of explanations for why the youth of America has decided to boo Jesus, but unfortunately, it mostly comes down to the fact that society equates Christians with Christianity.

Every human being, Christians very much included, struggle with a constant battle of choosing good or evil, grace or judgement, love or hatred every day. Again, Christians are not an exception here, but the good news is we have a lifeline. The lifeline is Jesus - who is overflowing with goodness, grace, and love. And the key to overcoming the struggle is to lean on Him to pull you out.

Now society anticipates that Christians should act like Jesus, represent His brand, be a walking billboard, and the like. "That guy says he follows Jesus, and he just did that?! Then I don't like him or this Jesus guy he follows." I can imagine thousands of variations of that idea in an attempt to justify a negative view of Christianity/Jesus. But society must see the reality that Christians are not perfect, nor should we ever claim to be, but Jesus was! (And still is.)

Don't get me wrong, this is not to give Christians a free pass to make a mess of things. I think a huge problem with Christians ( I put myself in this category too), is that the God we KNOW is not always the God we SHOW. We know we are only able to claim the title of being "Christians" through God's forgiveness, love, and kindness. He has extended such goodness to us, that the least we can do is share it with others, but we don't always succeed in doing that. It is far too easy to stay within our comfortable church walls sometimes, letting society only see/hear about what some Christians are up to on the news. And as a journalism student, I know a producer will happily choose a corrupt, pin- him-as-a-hypocrite type story over some amazing act of goodwill or mercy that occurred that day. Yet as Christians, we have the ability to overcome these negative views by living out a radical, Jesus kind of love-filled life. And as a society, we refrain from holding Christians to an impossible standard of perfection.

Paul, who wrote the majority of the New Testament, admits he is far from perfect, and yet that didn't stop him from being perhaps the all-time best spreader of Christianity.

He says, "I don't mean to say that I have already achieved these things or that I have already reached perfection. But I press on to possess that perfection for which Christ first possessed me. No, dear brothers and sisters, I have not achieved it, but I focus on one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Jesus Christ, is calling us." (Phillipians 3: 12-14)


As a fellow sinner and spreader of the Good News, I similarly declare, " I am not perfect, nor will I ever be, but that doesn't stop me from striving to live more like Jesus. I have completely let go of my past, because God let go of it first. And now I can look to my future, here on earth and in heaven, with the confidence that I am forgiven and loved."


Christians aren't perfect - but Jesus is. We can try to be advertisements for Him, but we can only do so much, especially if people can't see past our imperfections. Still, we should strive daily to let the God we know be the God we show to the world. But in the end, the best spokesperson for Jesus is Jesus himself and you'll only find the real truth about Him in His Word (the Bible). So maybe my generation just needs to do some good old reading and less news watching, but in the meantime, I'll keep doing what I can to share the Truth and pray that society stops booing Jesus, because no matter what you do, He will never boo you.


"... my life is worth nothing to me unless I use it for finishing the work assigned me by the Lord Jesus—the work of telling others the Good News about the wonderful grace of God." (Acts 20:24)