“Do all things without
grumbling or complaining…”
Phil 2:14
It felt so great. About 2.5 inches were on the floor and I shook my head as if to rid myself of the blahh that had overtaken me recently. I asked my hairdresser when I had been there last…June she said. As in 2022.
No wonder I felt schluppy. I’m in a battle with spell check, it doesn’t like that word, actually I don’t like it either. On me, schluppy looks like sweat pants and unkept hair pulled back in a quick ponytail. Every. Day. Schluppy feels hopeless and unmotivated.
Whenever I get to this point I know it’s time to get my hair done. No one has to push me or twist my arm.
I’ve been stuck on our verse for a long time. I can’t get by it. I can’t walk around it or hide from it. I haven’t been able to read it and run quickly past it’s message. It’s stuck like gum on the bottom of my shoe, every step reminding me it’s still there.
We all complain don’t we? Silly things, irritants; they get under our skin and usually we share them with people we trust, or come on… anyone who will listen sometimes right?! I’ve been gauging my mouth for a couple of months and realize a lot of gunk comes out. I am surprised I wasn’t complaining about getting my hair done.
Why wasn’t I?
Maybe because it makes me feel good; because someone washes my hair and massages my scalp. Maybe because I feel refreshed and pretty again. Probably because it’s easy and requires nothing of me except to sit still and enjoy it.
Isn’t that the crux? It’s easy.
The rest of the verse goes like this: “Do all things without grumbling or complaining that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you shine as lights of the world…”
It’s as if the Lord knew we’d be in an era of me first, me foremost, me always and this verse stands in rejection of that blatant selfishness. So much so that if you don’t grumble and complain, your life will be visibly different, it will resemble a beacon of light to everyone around you. Think lighthouse bright!
This verse mirrors the language used to describe the Israelites when they were complaining against Moses for bringing them out of Egypt. They were called a crooked and twisted generation because with their own eyes they had seen God in the cloud and the fire, in the rock and the manna. God had lead them out of their 400-year bondage and what was their response?
Man we hate this!! Where are all those leeks we used to eat? Why do we have people leading us who don’t seem to have a clue? Who thought this was a good idea anyway?? Why did we think God had a plan but now we’ve been abandoned out here? Did you hear how big those problems are? Hey, get out google maps and see how far it is back to Egypt…
Does any of that sound familiar? It does to me.
My complaints signal a trust in the giants who want to destroy me and a lack of trust in the giant slayer who wants to save me. My grumbling vocalizes disrespect and lack of holy fear towards a God who has my life and my future in his hands.
God asked the Israelites to trust him. He wanted them to look at the insurmountable roadblocks they were up against and rather than flee in terror, stand up and say – hey, God’s got this! God promised he would be with them…GOD ALMIGHTY! How could anyone come against them with God on their side? But it wasn’t going to be easy and in the hard messy parts of this story between Egypt and the Promised Land he was asking them to trust him by not complaining.
You. Me. Today. This…
The generation who grumbled and complained in the desert? Not one of them made it into the Promised Land except Joshua and Caleb, the only two whose faith was bigger than giants. The lesson is that God’s plan will always be accomplished but we may not be part of it if we get stuck in unbelief and faithlessness.
I think I needed a reset today. 2.5 inches of hair on the floor left me feeling lighter, clearer, happier, thankful. My heart needs it too. I think I’ll start by thanking the Lord for his loving plan for my life that unfolds each day, especially when that plan looks like the wilderness between Egypt and the Promised Land.