What is that noise in the background? That low dull sound hums on, like muddled voices in the next room with indistinguishable words. It is not a joyful sound, but that of grumbling, an irritating noise that infects everything in our lives. It is the mindset of whining, complaining, and discontent, a continual sound-loop in our thoughts. And this virulent form of murmuring keeps us knee-deep in the miry bog, draining our strength, rendering us incapable of doing what we ought, focusing our eyes on the mud, imprisoning our thoughts in the quagmire, everything is dismal, and we are doomed, FOREVER, it seems. God appears to be silent, while all along we have our hands over our ears, mumbling as loud as we can. “I can’t hear You!” perhaps, because we just don’t want to.
The Old Testament is FULL of the murmurings of God’s people, even in the midst of His deliverance. In plain sight of incredible miracles, God’s people complained and grumbled, finding fault and basking in discontent. No matter what God did, it just wasn’t good enough. What was God thinking?
The problem with grumbling is that it completely hinders the capacity to experience joy. It is a type of white noise, designed to create an artificial selfish cocoon devoid of any outside influence. It is the sound of not trusting God with what He is doing.
Grumbling seems now to have become a recreational sport in our lives, an addiction that refuses to just go away on its own. But it can be challenged, replaced and defeated. Several weeks ago, I suggested to a friend who was going through a difficult experience to get a notebook and start writing down the things that she was thankful for in the midst of her hard situation. I just received an email from her, telling me that her list has taken on a life of its own. It has made a tremendous difference in her life, recognizing God’s goodness and acknowledging what He is doing, in things both seen and unseen. “God has been flooding me with evidences of His faithfulness here (past and present)” she wrote, “and it has produced such joy in my heart to write them down.” Her situation has not changed, but her heart is being transformed.
A similar experience happened to one of our girls who was going through a low valley of discouragement in high school, experiencing the cloudy and dismal days of adolescence when even getting dressed in the morning seems overwhelming and so monumental. “Look for the joy,” I suggested. “When you get home from school this afternoon, tell me ONE good thing that happens today.” It was like giving her a new pair of lenses – she saw her world differently, not in a Pollyanna artificial sweetener kind of way, but the reality of what is really there – the reality of God’s goodness staring her in the face.
Recently I was looking through a digital gallery of pictures taken by a photographer during my last marathon, when it was raining so hard that our shirts were plastered to our skin and our feet squished along the muddy trail. In picture after picture, I saw a beautiful meadow nestled in front of mountains rising out of the mist, a rustic wooden fence meandered along the rise and delicate trees decorated with spring green. “Where was that?” I asked myself. “I missed that part.” And then, suddenly in one of the pictures, there I was, floundering along in the foreground, the magnificence behind me like a backdrop right out of National Geographic. This part of the trail – on which I traveled twice - was on the edge of what I had termed the “valley of despair,” where the bridge had washed out. I missed an awesome sight, because I was SO preoccupied with my grumbling.
Today – no matter what you are facing – look for the joy.
And write it down. Thank God for what you are going through.
Yes, even that.
And even what you can’t yet understand.
Because below the shallow surface,
there is great goodness.
You can trust Him in all things,
and He will guide you to higher ground.
O give thanks to the LORD,
for He is good.
Psalm 118.1
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