A Good Report

By Robin Caldwell

"The Lord will give you meat to eat this evening and abundant bread in the morning, for He has heard the complaints that you are raising against Him. Who are we? Your complaints are not against us but against the Lord." (Exodus 16: 8)

Chronic complaining irritates me. I have little tolerance for complaining, especially my own. This irritation is equal opportunity and no one is exempt including yours truly.

I wait for the commuter bus with a woman who not only invades my personal space—steps all up in here—but who never has anything good to say about anything, except for me. She is quick to compliment my clothing, but generally she greets me with a complaint about the weather (it’s never perfect), traffic (we’re not driving), passers-by (creepy), and work (her co-workers are mean-spirited slackers).

Many times I’ve re-routed myself to avoid her to no avail. She found me. I’ve even begged God to change her schedule; he didn’t. She still found me.

One day, it occurred to me that my encounters with this woman were divine appointments. These appointments were designed to work something out in me. What? I didn’t know.

So I stopped resisting her. I endured many more mornings of the same routine from a fresh perspective. Ultimately, I realized that it wasn’t her that offended me and it wasn’t her complaints.

The spirit behind the complaints was offensive. There was an underlying spirit of misery and hopelessness, which is contrary to the Spirit of God. She exuded absolutely no hope or joy in a Christ she said she believed in. Thinking my revelation would free me up to continue disliking her, I continued disliking her. Whatever God was attempting to show me I’d missed. It was back to the drawing board.

Almost miraculously, however, God opened that woman’s mouth to expose her past to me. She told me that she’d been abused, homeless and penniless. Jesus had delivered her from those heart‑wrenching circumstances, she said. Her story tugged at my heart.

She stopped annoying me when I realized that while she’d been delivered from the hardship, the hardship continued to dwell in her spirit. She hadn’t let the pain of her past go, which is why she rarely had anything good to say.

Finally, I was free. God used that woman to work out—loosen—my compassion.

I see her now, smile, and step back slightly when she enters my space. She still complains, no change there. But for the few brief moments I’m in her presence I compliment her, say something nice about things in general, and steer the conversation into safe territory.

Unbeknownst to my friend, she and I have come a mighty long way.

Conventional wisdom dictates that chronic complaining requires action. Stop the whining, we’ll say, and make a change.It’s really that simple; or is it?

Oprah always says, “When we know better, we do better.” The truth is people given to chronic complaining don’t know better. They do what they do because it’s all they know.

Chronic Christian complainers, including me, really don’t have an excuse. According to Philippians 4: 8, “Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy--meditate on these things.” We’re to think on these things that edify and encourage our spirits. And, in all things—the good, bad, and ugly—we’re to give thanks.

The occasional vent is permissible and probable. There is nothing written in Scripture prohibiting us from getting a few things off of our chests. We can vent.

Yet we are prohibited from finding fault in all people and circumstances, which is chronic complaining. It’s our good report or the good we find in all things that brings God the greatest glory.

Plus, chronic complaining is the antithesis of a good report and it negates the value of God and his works.The complaints, in effect, tell him we’re ungrateful and unappreciative for all he does. The complaints, in effect, tell the world and those listening to our complaints that there’s nothing good about our God. He receives no glory whatsoever from grumbling and groaning.

Some years back, Sarah Ban Breathnach, author of Simple Abundance: A Daybook of Comfort and Joy recommended that her readers keep a daily gratitude journal. It was her point that abundance was both measurable and achievable by merely documenting the things in a given day that we’re grateful for. If you focus on the good, then the bad becomes less visible and even more bearable.

One day I’m going to explain this concept to the woman at the bus stop. She’s due for a change in perspective on her past, present and future. Until that day, I’m going to work on my own good report.After all, to God be the glory.