It’s easy to find fault. The waiter brings the wrong soda. Our new blouse reveals a dangling thread. Our coworker offends us with country music.
Other times the complaints are bigger. The mortgage company ups our interest rate. Our car blows an engine. Our child gets cancer. We look to heaven and call out, “I didn’t sign up for this. What was that for, God? Am I being punished for something, or what?”
We begin to lose sight of the things we hold in our hands that really matter. In the mornings, we open our eyes, and we have sweet air to breathe. We sit down to breakfast, and there is food on the table. We have people around us who know us by name, and they notice when we are in distress.
Solomon 2:15 offers us a solution:
“Catch the foxes for us, the little foxes that spoil the vineyards, for our vineyards are in blossom.”
The little foxes are the complaints that keep us from seeing the good that surrounds us. We have to cage them, keep them out of our thoughts, so that we can find gratefulness in our hearts.
Certainly, we can send that soda back, but it’s still cold and sweet. Just enjoy it. That dangling thread? It doesn’t hurt us to clip it ourselves. Have we heard of earplugs? Wear them, and we won’t notice that offending music at all.
Soon we will become bold enough to step out on Hebrews 4:16:
“Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”
There are times our complaints are valid. Yes, higher interest rates may cause our house payment to become unaffordable. Replacing that car can be prohibitive. Cancer? We rightly shudder at the very idea. Even so, we can’t let those things become our focus. Instead, we must trust in our God for strength to weather that which life lays across our shoulders.
Galatians 3:11 reminds us:
“Now it is evident that no one is justified before God by the law, for ‘The righteous shall live by faith.’ ”
One synonym for faith is trust. We get to the other side of our problems when we trust in the Father. We get there with a good attitude when we let our complaints slip aside and look at the good things we already have.
We have Jesus, and that’s the best thing of all.
When we stop asking God why and start trusting him, our outlook will change for the better in every way.
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