Are You Tempted to Complain?

Most of us have every “right” to complain as we face injustice, betrayal, grief and pain in this difficult world. On any given day I am as tempted as any man to lift a fist toward Heaven and shout, “I’ve had it Lord! I’m done!”

I am honored, and humbled, that my lifelong hero, Joni Earkeckson Tada, recently endorsed my book, If anyone has the right to complain, it is Joni. She has been a quadriplegic for nearly 50 years. During those five decades she has never dressed herself, bathed herself, nor fed herself. Yet instead of complaint, she has become a vessel in God’s hands enlightening millions about a subject she is intimately aware of: the love of God.

Sounds strange doesn’t it, that someone who has been crushed as Joni spends her life speaking, singing, writing books, creating amazing art (with a paintbrush held in her teeth), and doing all she can to declare the love and glory of God?

Joni knows something that all who suffer in this world (that would be all of us) need to know. Shattered dreams and seemingly hopeless circumstances cannot thwart God’s purposes for our lives, nor can they prevent us from receiving God’s love and spreading that love to others.

God’s Son, Jesus, paid an enormous price on the cross pay for the forgiveness for our sin, and to provide a life of true purpose as we walk with Him here. And after our very brief time in this world (100 years, if we get it, is indeed brief), this God of love will do things for His children which will make the sufferings of this world seem a trifle, and an honor to the extent that we have allowed the Lord to use our pain for His good purposes.

“Why should any living mortal, or any man, Offer complaint in view of his sins? Let us examine and probe our ways, And let us return to the Lord.” Lamentations 3:39-40

“For to you it has been granted for Christ’s sake, not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for His sake.” Philippians 1:29

“For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us.” Romans 8:18

“For momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison, while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.” 2 Cor. 4:17-18

“For our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ; 21 who will transform the body of our humble state into conformity with the body of His glory, by the exertion of the power that He has even to subject all things to Himself.” Philippians 3:20-21