Article August 8, 1983 Issue

Complaining or siding with God?

VIRGINIA T. GUFFIN

We were taking two little boys to see the house we were building on the crest of a wooded ridge. As we turned onto the as yet unpaved road leading up the hill, one little boy cried out in disgust, "This awful dirt road!" The other one exclaimed in delight, "Look at the trees! Look at the trees!" Are we ever like the child who couldn't enjoy the beauty around him because he'd found something to complain about?

We're often unaware of how much complaining we do— whether to ourselves or to others. Once we get started, we usually keep it up, given the hypnotic nature of grumbling.

People who do a lot of complaining may feel it's a relatively harmless habit. But actually it's a mesmeric agreement that evil is real and is lurking nearby to cheat us out of happiness or prosperity or health. It denies God's presence, power, and goodness—His ability to maintain the perfection of His creation. Seen in this light, complaining is a sin. Far from being harmless, complaining produces a despondent state that opens the door to aches and disease. Agreeing that error is real and annoying in one instance reduces our ability to see it as unreal in another.

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