Article August 12, 1996 Issue

Silencing complaint

Marian Cates

Subduing complaint is an ongoing project with me. I first noticed the urgent need to give up complaining a number of years ago. Ever since, it's been an integral part of my efforts to evangelize myself, that is, to bring myself into accord with God's goodness and love for man. One idea I've found helpful is a point Mary Baker Eddy makes in the Christian Science textbook, Science and Health: "... the human self must be evangelized. This task God demands us to accept lovingly to-day, and to abandon so fast as practical the material, and to work out the spiritual which determines the outward and actual" (p. 254).

There's no denying that sometimes complaint seems justified. Human life isn't always easy or fair. But the gospel Christ Jesus taught and lived makes it clear that there's no distress that can resist spiritual power. By gaining confidence in God's love for man, we're increasingly able to exercise this power and to feel at one with Him.

But first we have to make a serious effort to give up complaining. I still vividly remember the moment when I realized how habituated I was to complaining. Maybe not out loud, but complaining all the same. I'd just gotten up that morning and was going over in my mind the things I had to do and feeling overwhelmed. What struck me was how out of proportion my dread was to the size and number of the tasks.

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