This morning I read a blog by a woman who claimed that if pouting were an Olympic sport, she would have the gold. What interested me in her topic was her comment that, “Complaining leads to a disconnect from God and to an appointment with the devil.”

While I was surprised by such a strong comment, especially being involved in the arts and in touch with the light and dark side of humanity (Where  art is formed around the human condition), I took a moment to understand her perspective.

It occurred to me, she might have been saying that when we are found in a constant state of complaining, we don’t do anything to improve our situation. Nor do we live by faith, which pleases God. We are lost in the mire of our negatively focused mind and become useless to those around us. Life becomes a downward spiral that ends in a constant dripping of despair and frustration.

Since the owner’s manual to our lives suggests that we should hold the positive perspective of thankfulness…

“Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.” Philippians 4:6

…The opposite would also hold true and supports one of the pouting medalist’s perspectives: Complaining takes us a step away from God.

Complaining once is a healthy action as we verbalize what has hurt us deep inside. However, dwelling on it can prove harmful and lead to broken relationships – No one likes to live with a full time commiserater.

Admitting what hurts us and then doing what we can to improve on the situation takes a step of faith, which pleases God. It also focuses our mind on moving forward in a positive lifestyle that may soon help us to overcome ancillary issues and hinder a pending crisis from occurring.

However, some might try to just put on a positive face in the name of pleasing God and forget that being honest about the condition of our heart is important. They might forget that we are to live free from defects, by sifting and sorting through the garbage in our lives and replacing it with compassion and empathy for others – Something that can’t happen without us experiencing some sort of loss or pain.

Complaining comes from our depraved humanity and acting on our first complaint by taking action for the positive improves our lives and those around us.

My dad heard me complain as a small child when I tried to get on my high tricycle. Climbing it was difficult and the fall painful. I cried and complained, after all, my brand new bright red tricycle was out of my reach.

My dad calmed me down and took me into the basement where his tools were. I watched as he took my tricycle apart. Tears welled in my eyes when it was nothing but a pile of parts. He then reassembled it with the center bar upside down. It looked just like a “Big Wheel” that would be invented a decade later.

I was happy and spent hours a day on that tricycle. Complaining was far from my mind, all because my dad chose action from the first complaint, rather than allowing me to dwell on the negative.

Faith is dead without action, and complaining is foolish without looking into our heart to learn the reason for the pain and then doing something to engage change. Holding a gold medal for complaining isn’t half as exciting as finding the solution that brings happiness and joy to our hearts.

Copyright © 2011 By CJ Powers
Photo © Anatoly Maslennikov – Fotolia.com

Corporate America has played in the global landscape for over two decades. It altered our perspective and has given rise to numerous issues and considerations from religion, to lower priced manufacturing, to new approaches in the medical field. We have become a global society with new rules and politically correct perspectives.

At work, I deal daily with people from several countries, religious backgrounds and cultures. At church, I cross paths with people from about 70 countries who have moved to the area and attend. I have become so comfortable mingling with multiple cultures, that I sometimes forget the biases and assaults that fearful people project onto races they don’t understand.

I had a conversation with one woman from India who shared her spiritual views and attempted to explain the main characters in her story by comparing them to Jesus and the devil. While there was a direct correlation to the devil, she said that Jesus was completely unique.

She understood correlations to the heavenly Father and even the Spirit, but she was perplexed at who this Jesus character was. In all her experience with multiple cultures, and in all her religious studies, she concluded that most religions do about the same thing, just from different angles, with one exception — Jesus.

She couldn’t understand why a god would lay down his life for bad people. Nor did she understand the concept of grace. She needed to understand why a god would love someone who hadn’t achieved a certain level of goodness.

Unfortunately, she faced a barrage of negative comments scolding her views and suggesting she was headed to hell. Those demeaning her were doing so out of their ignorance. They didn’t understand she was an intelligent person who could make a valued decision if given the right information.

In response to her inquiry, I told her that it wasn’t about what we do or how we attempt to earn enlightenment, but rather about who God is and what he chose to do out of love for us, his creation. Our discussion expanded to include comments about unconditional love, which was beyond her base of understanding, but she quickly picked up on it and appreciated my candidness on the subject.

Growing up in a home where I received numerous beatings every week skewed my understanding of love. Thankfully I had several people who came along side of me, rather than telling me I was headed to hell, and they helped me to not only understand unconditional love, but to embrace it.

This woman could directly relate to my story, not because of an abusive past, but because of those ridiculing her and telling her she was headed to hell. She soon understood their views about hell and was thankful to know the truth, but she always wondered why her accusers didn’t instead demonstrate unconditional love to her – Something that would have immediately draw her to God.

Only those who have laid down their personal desires to live a transparent life guided by God can demonstrate unconditional love through humility. It’s all about people being able to see God in us and through our actions. It’s not about people seeing us as great achievers. After all, our story is about grace, not success.