I never really thought of myself as a complainer. However, as I reflect on 2005 and look forward to the rest of 2006, I wondered what God would want to change in me this year. Philippians 2:14 kept coming to mind and so I figured I needed to take another look at who I thought I was, and who God saw. The verse says to do ALL things without complaining or disputing. I actually like the King James Version better. It says, “Do all things without murmurings or disputing.” To complain denotes an “outcry or a shout,” while a murmuring is a “secret displeasure not openly avowed”. So while I may not always openly complain about the task at hand, I believe God has seen my inward grumbling and wants to work on that.

           

     How many of us go through life grumbling and complaining and miss the joy and blessings of serving Christ? How many times have we complained about the rain and missed the rainbow? Or complained about the stacks of laundry and forgot to thank God for having so many choices in what we wear? How many times have we sat, stuck in traffic, and missed the opportunity to thank God for the job that we are headed to, or the wonderful family we have waiting for us at home? How often have we sat in church and grumbled that our needs weren’t being met, while we neglected to meet a need that we were qualified for.

         

        As I murmured (inwardly) this week about frozen water pipes, and undone laundry, I had the chance to talk to two women who shared their struggles with me. One is facing having to put her mother and father in a nursing home because she and her siblings have full time jobs and just cannot care for them full time. The other has been separated from her children for three years, because she is struggling with cancer, a tumor and most recently a blood clot on the brain. What do I have to grumble about? “Thank you God for reminding me through these two women, how incredibly blessed I am. I have a family who loves me, the support of a wonderful church family, and You to come running to when things go wrong. Help me to start each day with joy and thanksgiving and when I start to “murmur” remind me of all the many ways in which you have blessed me.”

           

      As I was reading in the Bible one evening, God showed me another treasure from scripture that I hope to carry with me throughout this year. I challenge you all to take a look at it and do the same. The passage is found in Habakkuk. I know, how many people have actually read Habakkuk. Well, this was probably the first for me and I’m so glad I did, because otherwise I would have missed out on this wonderful passage of scripture. The passage is Habakkuk 3:17–19a. I have rewritten it for today and hope you’ll go back and read it the way it was written for Habakkuk’s day.

                                               

                                               Though the cupboards be empty

                                                Nor vegetables be in the garden;

                                                Though my water pipes be frozen

                                                And my well run dry in the summer;

                                                Though my health begin to fail,

                                                And my body groan from the

                                                pains of arthritis---

                                                Yet I will rejoice in the Lord,

                                                I will joy in the God of my salvation.

                                                The Lord God is my strength;