Don't Complain
I have a friend who loves the Song of Bernadette. His favorite part of the movie is when Bernadette is sick, and the doctor asked, "Did she ever complain?" He wants me to be the one who says, when he dies, "Did he ever complain?" That is so the doctor can give the answer about him that he gave to Bernadette.
The family asks why the doctor asks, and he says, "Because the pain must have been excruciating." I tell him I will ask, "Did he ever complain?" But my answer will be one of emphasis. Not as a question, but as a statement. "Did he evercomplain."
Truth be told, however, I complain. I try not to do it often, and I think I have gotten a little better, but still I complain. And I often wonder why. Why is it that when things don't go well I am prone to complain.
I bet Moses asked why the people complained so often as well. After all, he has led the Hebrew people from slavery in the desert, has been the vehicle for God's great and miraculous acts, and still the people complain.
I know for me my complaining comes from a lack of patience. I want things to happen my way, and quickly. Ironically, I also try to sit in silent prayer waiting on God. Go figure. I know God is infinite, but I am still tempted to think I know better.
If you have never been in a desert, you might not realize the wide variety of extremes. It can be blistering hot during the day, but quite frigid at night. That is because the sand reflects the heat back during the day, and because it does not absorb the heat, has nothing to reflect back to at night.
So on one level, it can be easy to see why the people complained. We forget they were bringing with them into the desert their entire livelihood. They had their families to be sure, but also their livestock.
Still, "with their patience worn out by the journey" they reached a breaking point. The problem is that they turn their focus away from God, and turn it to only seeing themselves. As a result, the journey brings about in them a lack of patience, leading to anger, and grumbling at both Moses and God.
And when they turn away from God, they forget all he has done for them. They want to go back to Egypt, but they really didn't like it there either. They hold on to the past. They forget and lose sight of the hope of the promised land given them by God.
Don't we do the same with sin sometimes? Aren't there times when we would rather hold onto our sinfulness, failing to keep our focus on God and the hope he offers us. And when we turn all of our attention inward, we take the perceived good of our sinfulness over the hope we need to have in faith.
This is what the season of Lent is all about. We are to leave behind those things that enslave us (like how Egypt was a place of slavery), and accept the new life God offers us. During Lent, through prayer, fasting and almsgiving, we turn away from sin, to become more faithful to the gospel.
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