Because it is Monday
you have the
Freedom to Complain
Yup
Complain~
to express dissatisfaction, pain, uneasiness, resentment, or grief;
to find fault
in whatever you are doing
or in whatever you are not doing
in whatever someone else is doing
or in whatever someone else is not doing
How about the freedom to complain about your appearance?
Now that is an easy one,
to point fingers
at myself
what I don't like about me.
Freedom to Complain
Now is that really the freedom
that I want
that you want?
Freedom~
"the power or right to act, speak, or think as one wants without hindrance or restraint"
The
Freedom to Complain
fits nicely into that definition.
Another definition for
Freedom~
"the state of not being imprisoned or enslaved."
Hmm...
but
the Freedom to be a Complainer
is to be imprisoned or enslaved
to what is wrong.
So is that really
Freedom?
Complainer defined:
“one who is discontented with his lot in life.”
I have another definition
given to me by
Mrs. T
a women I just met
at the scooter rental store
who was trying to fit me for a helmet big enough to fit over my hair.
A calming presence exudes her,
a sense of calm washed over my soul as she spoke.
As she deals with complainers often (and believe it or not I wasn't the one complaining!),
tourists who are away from home
on vacation
who shouldn't have anything to complain about,
well they do
and when they do
she freely passes along
her words of wisdom to them:
"If you don't like what you are doing
Go Home
and
Someone else will do it."
She also takes her own advice
for when she wakes up in the morning
not feeling like going to work
and she remembers
that there is someone else
who is also waking up
wishing they had a job to go to
and it could be hers.
Her husband passed away
and she said
that there isn't a moment that she wished her husband was here,
but he isn't
so why complain.
Instead
she looks up
to the
One
Who
fills her with
His Peace
as she
lives out of the words of Philippians 4: 11-13
...for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances.
I know what it is to be in need,
and I know what it is to have plenty.
I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation,
whether well fed or hungry,
whether living in plenty or in want.
I can do all this through him who gives me strength.
Yup
She has also been set free
by the
One
Who
has set me free
and you free
to live free
above
complaining.
I knew there was something different about her,
yet something the same.
100s of miles from home
God sent
Mrs. T
to shine
His Light
into my life
at a scooter store
to remind me about
Freedom~
Contentment in Him
because of Him~
So if the Son has set you free
you will be free indeed. John 8:36
So on this Monday
What do you have to do today?
Is it something that you don't feel like doing,
but it is something that you have to do?
Whatever your role may be
it comes with the good and the bad,
but it is what you do
and where you are
and
there is always someone else who could be doing it.
What are you doing that you wish you weren't doing?
Where do you wish you were instead of where you are now?
Who do you wish you could be instead of being who you are ?
I don't want to be here,
because I'd rather be there
I don't want to do this,
because I would rather be doing do that.
I wish I was
taller
shorter
thinner
or
fatter.
I wish I was
I wish I wasn't~
even though
you are .
Free to be content right where you are now
because that is right where you are now.
Uncomplainable Freedom
as Job said it best
in the midst of very "complain-able" circumstances~
Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I will depart.
The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away;
may the name of the Lord be praised.”
In all this, Job did not sin
by charging God with wrongdoing.
Freedom
to be
Content.
Well
Mrs. T has it right
as she lives
Free
in Christ
and it is because of this freedom
that she finds contentment
in the moment
no matter who walks through the door
who may be practicing the
Freedom to Complain
because she will just say
"If you don't like what you are doing
Go Home
and
Someone else will do it."
So
let's
Put into Practice
Uncomplainable Freedom!