Worshiping or Whining
But you know what? Way too often I respond in a nasally, equally whiny tone of voice to say, "Stop whining". I catch myself sometimes and think, "Really, what am I becoming? How am I different? Responding to whining with whining is not the way to teach by example." So with toes feeling the effects of the smashing they received, we try again and again and again, both to teach that whining is not the recommended response and to learn myself that whining is not the recommended response.
I read a book recently that said we have two options in life: we can worship or we can whine. That really struck me. I've already shared what my way too frequent go-to response is, but this is something I want to work on.
Life isn't fair, let's be real, it's true, but God is fair, God is just and God is love, so when all of life is falling down around you, God will be the constant and He can be depended on and that means, we can always worship Him. He will not fail us or walk away from us.
Our natural tendency as humans seems to be to see the negative. Maybe this isn't true for you, but it is definitely the tendency in my family tree and a branch I want to sever before my children allow it to grow in their life. We see first the things that aren't right. And there's a secret, hidden place in us that delights in other's failures because we think somehow it makes us look more brilliant. Perhaps this is the grown-up version of whining.
But what would it require of us, if, instead of seeing the negative in things, in people, in events, we would worship? What if we would praise God for that thing, that person, that event that happened? What if we would ask God to bless that person who we want to criticize or who rubs us the wrong way? What if, every time, we want to whine, we would pause and thank God for whatever is happening right here, right now? And then, we would lift up our eyes and count our blessings. I think it could change the world.
I was challenged with that this morning. I will write out prayers in my journal because it helps me stay focused more on praying and because it helps me not to rant quite as much about the things going on in my life. I'm not as likely to go off about the way someone is treating me if I'm writing it as a prayer. Anyway, I wanted to rant a bit this morning even in prayer, but when I got to it, I felt the urge to pray a blessing on that person instead, to ask God to make them successful. Okay, I will admit, I did add some needs to the prayer as well, needs I feel that they need filled in their life because obviously I know best. But it felt good, it felt right. Okay, it even felt a bit, like ha, you can fuss and I can bless, so take that, (I'm still a work in progress).
But just think for a bit what would happen if we would choose to bless when we are tempted to fuss, if we would worship when we wanted to whine, if we would see the positive when the negative seems so obvious? Maybe the whole world wouldn't change, but we would change and, in turn, we could be the change the world so desperately needs.
And right now, as the world is in crisis mode and there are as many opinions as there are people, perhaps even more, we need people who are worshiping, who are grounded in God and not out being one more whiny voice in a sea of whiners. And once again, my toes are smashed, because I too have been guilty of "knowing" more than the experts and "knowing" how things ought to be done. I have been guilty of criticizing those responsible for events I want to participate in and for thinking I could do it better. So today, I am going to focus on worshiping.
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